The accord struck in Vienna to rein in Iran’s nuclear activities has warmongers fulminating. Citizens worldwide should support U.S. President Barack Obama’s brave effort to outmaneuver them, taking heart from the fact that the signatories include not just the United States, but all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.Many of the warmongers are to be found in Obama’s own government agencies. Most Americans struggle to recognize or understand their country’s permanent

A group of children and teachers narrowly avoided what could have been a horrible accident last week when the roof of a classroom collapsed at a child care center in Bangbae-dong, Seoul.Eleven students, from age 1 to 3, used the classroom in which the roof caved in. It was pure chance that the children had just stepped out of the room, led by their teachers, to wash their hands before lunch. The accident could have led to the tragic deaths of teachers and young lives. On the day of the accident,

The death of a National Intelligence Service employee by apparent suicide on Saturday has raised more questions about the spy agency’s hacking activities.The 20-year-veteran of cybersecurity at the NIS who was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his car in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, left three separate suicide notes, including one addressed to his employer, the NIS, which was made public on Sunday.The man, identified only as Lim, was said to have been responsible for the spy agency’s pu

Super Junior is all style and sophistication in its new album “Devil,” a special release celebrating 10 years since the group’s debut. Featuring bouncy, stylized beats and collaborating with an eclectic bunch of musicians, the new album sees the band branching out musically and appealing to a wider audience.In more than a few ways, Super Junior has arguably been a group atypical to SM Entertainment. At a label known for producing ultramodern pop beats and veiling its artists in a pristine public

The Ascott Limited is gearing up to open the Citadines Haeundae Busan next month, marking not only the first Citadines in Korea, but also the largest Citadines-branded “apart’ hotel” in its vast stable of global properties.The soon-to-be opened 468-room, fully serviced residence Citadines Haeundae Busan will officially open its doors on Aug. 15 and will become the property of its kind in the port city. “We will be the first international serviced residence brand in Busan,” said Max Phillips, are

South Korea’s leading chemical and materials firm LG Chem has called on all executives and employees to brace for “uncertainties” in the global economy, despite the marked improvement in its business.“LG Chem has made improvements in businesses during the first half compared to the same period last year as executives and employees have made concerted efforts to achieve our goals,” CEO Park Jin-soo said at a meeting with them at the firm’s plant in Naju, South Jeolla Province, on Monday.“Let’s pr

Asia is currently the world’s fastest-growing region, and foreigners are beginning to spot opportunities to found their start-ups in Asian countries.“What I’m seeing is a real increase in entrepreneurship and a real increase in mobility, especially among younger entrepreneurs,” said Peter Wall, cofounder of Hubud, a coworking space in Bali, Indonesia.However, it is not easy to set up a foreign start-up across the region. While some hubs, like Singapore, are keener to globalize and attract foreig

Sistar (Starship Entertainment)The K-pop charts have been a tough battleground for Korea’s top pop groups in July, but the competition has been particularly fierce among girl groups.While big-name boy bands have generally timed their album releases to avoid head-on clashes, girl groups rolled the dice, with established names returning to the stage at the same time.Here’s a wrap-up of the summer girl group face-off in the K-pop scene so far, who’s come out on top and what’s to come in the coming

A scene from the original cast production of “Chicago,” on run at the National Theater of Korea until Aug. 8. (Seensee Company)One of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history, “Chicago” has made its way back to Seoul with an American cast who brilliantly recreate the good ol’ days of scandalous jazz tunes.  Sprinkled with a wicked murderous twist, the show weaves one of musical theater’s more shamefully alluring tales of lies and human greed. “You’re about to hear a story of murder, gree

The internationally dubbed “boy who loved Batman” and the force behind producing the “Batman” and “Dark Knight” movie series, Michael E. Uslan, has come to Seoul to share the tremendous tales behind how he turned his childhood obsession to one of the world’s most unforeseen game-changing film franchises.The man responsible for reimagining Batman as a noncomical, dark creature of the night who hunts criminals from the shadows said that he would stop at nothing to rid the perception of Batman as a

Hollywood TV and movie director T.J. Scott -- best known for his popular on-screen works “Spartacus,” “Gotham” and “Orphan Black” -- has made his way to Seoul to lend his expertise on the current and future state of the film and TV industries in the U.S.Invited as part of the Korea Creative Content Agency’s “Content Insight” lecture series for the month of July, Scott, who is credited with taking part in more than 50 TV shows and movies over the past two decades, discussed his take on television

One person was killed Saturday in a powerful explosion that partly damaged the Italian consulate in central Cairo, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.His statement came after a medic told an AFP journalist at the scene of the blast that it had wounded two policemen and three passers-by, but Abdel Ghaffar was unable to specify if the dead person was a member of the security forces or the public.Egypt's official MENA news agency said that early indications were that the explosion

A powerful blast hit the Italian consulate in the Egyptian capital on Saturday, partly destroying the facade of the building in central Cairo, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which occurred at about 6:30 am (0430 GMT), when the consulate would have been closed.Medics at the site of the explosion told AFP that it wounded two policemen stationed outside the consulate, as well as three passers-by.Hundreds of soldiers and policemen have

Wildfires in Saskatchewan burned out of control, with one blaze more than five times the size of the province's largest city, Saskatoon, officials said. Fires also raged in British Columbia and Alberta. The western Canada wildfires have forced thousands of people to evacuate, and air advisories have been issued across central and western Canada, as well as parts of the western U.S., due to the thick smoke over the region. About 200 fires burned Friday in British Columbia, fire information office

With a crucial shareholder meeting for a proposed merger with its sister firm a week away, Samsung C&T Corp., Samsung Group's construction and trading arm, is ratcheting up its efforts to win more pro-merger shareholders, particularly minority stakeholders, industry sources said Saturday.Although the country's state pension fund, the National Pension Service, has decided to back the high-profile merger between Samsung C&T with Cheil Industries Inc., the group's de facto holding firm., it is stil

North Korea's sole-operating oil refinery has been up and running despite a series of media reports that China halted crude exports to the impoverished communist neighbor amid strained relations last year, a U.S. expert said Friday.Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., chief analytics officer of AllSource Analysis, said in a report carried by the website 38 North of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies that the North's Ponghwa Chemical Factory would not have been running if Beijing had h

South Korea reported no additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Saturday, with the death toll from the disease rising by one to 36.The number of people diagnosed with the viral disease has remained unchanged since Sunday at 186, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.Ministry officials said the country may be able to declare an end to the MERS outbreak if it continues to see no new infection cases.However, 513 people still remain in isolation as suspected cases follo

South Korean stocks will likely experience fluctuations next week on lingering concerns about Greek debts talks and the choppy Chinese market with bleak second-quarter earnings outlooks, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 2,031.17 on Friday, down 3.48 percent from a week earlier due mainly to downbeat news from Greece and China.The index plunged 2.4 percent on Monday, the largest fall in three years, after more than 60 percent of Greek voters rejected

From crowd favorites Mozart and Verdi, to one of the world’s earliest known opera productions, the remainder of the 2015 season promises moving and memorable arias.Seoul Metropolitan Opera is gearing up for its staging of one of the world’s oldest known operas -- Claudio Monteverdi’s early baroque piece “L’Orfeo.” Based on the mythical musician, poet and Greek prophet Orpheus, the opera tells the tale of his journey to the underworld and his challenge to Hades to retrieve his deceased wife, Eury

Eight ancient Baekje historic areas were collectively named as a UNESCO World Heritage site Saturday, becoming Korea’s 12th item on the much-coveted World Heritage list. It joins the ranks of the volcanic island of Jeju, Seoul’s Changdeokgung Palace and the mountain fortress of Namhansanseong. The Baekje historic areas are a collection of sites built over the different periods of Baekje, spanning nearly 700 years from B.C. 18 to A.D. 660. The sites, including royal palaces and fortresses, tombs,