(Yonhap News)Coffee prices in South Korea surged 4.5 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, due mainly to soaring costs of importing coffee beans, data showed Sunday.  The increase is more than six times larger than a 0.7 percent on-quarter gain in consumer prices in the April-June period, according to the data compiled by the central Bank of Korea and state-run Statistics Korea.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jane Fonda says she's been banished from the cable television home-shopping channel QVC amid concerns about her political past. The network says it was a routine programming change.Fonda was set to appear on the home-shopping channel on Saturday to promote her new book on aging, ``Prime Time.'' But the day before, she learned her segment had been cancelled. In this April 2, 1973 f

 Dozens of South Korean women in skimpy clothes and wearing sunglasses or masks rallied on Saturday as part of the "SlutWalk" global protest against sexual violence.About 70 people, mostly women who met online to coordinate the action, danced together in the rain in central Seoul to make their point that "a dress does not mean yes." (Yonhap News)"Don't touch my body," read a slogan written on yell

LONDON (AFP) - British police were on Saturday hunting a suspected hospital killer after the unexplained deaths of three patients, in a case with echoes of the notorious nurse Beverley Allitt.Officers said they were interviewing 11 patients who survived being given insulin-contaminated saline solution at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, northwest England. (MCT)Allitt, dubbed the "angel of deat

BEIJING (AP) -- China has slammed President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama as an act that has ``grossly interfered in China's internal affairs'' and damaged Chinese-American relations.The statement from China's Foreign Ministry comes hours after Obama met with the Tibetan spiritual leader in Washington.China had already called on the United States to stop Saturday's White House meeting

LONDON (AP) -- ``We are sorry'' the full-page ad began, as Rupert Murdoch tried to halt a phone-hacking scandal that has claimed two of his top executives with a gesture of atonement and promises to right the wrongs committed by his now-shuttered tabloid, News of the World.Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led government and the London police, meanwhile, faced increasing questions Saturd

Heavy downpours battered much of North Korea earlier this week, causing casualties and flooding homes, farmlands, and roads, the country's media reported Saturday.The massive flooding raises fresh concern that the North's already serious food shortages may worsen. The North's Korean Central News Agency said that downpours hit many parts of the country from July 12-15, with North and South Hwanghae

Sweden is planning to send medical aid worth US$2.94 million to North Korea, the Voice of America reported Saturday.The supply of medical aid to the communist state will be made through European relief agencies such as Save the Children U.K., according to the report.The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) said the medical aid to the North is part of its humanitarian assista

Domestic gold prices set a fresh record high on Saturday on the back of recent surges in international prices of the precious metal and the weak U.S. dollar, industry sources said.The retail price of 1 don (3.75 grams) of pure gold in the country stood at 217,800 won (US$206) on Saturday, up 600 won from Friday's quotation, according to the Korea Gold Exchange, a local gold dealer. Don is a unit u

The government should have the right to remove severely obese children from their parents’ home and place them in foster care, two US doctors argued in a controversial editorial.“State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors,” wrote Lindsey Murtagh of the Harvard School of Public Health

A lawyer is pushing for a class action suit against Apple after he won a court battle last month over the iPhone’s location tracking.Apple Korea recently paid about 1 million won in compensation to attorney Kim Hyung-suk following a lower court’s ruling that the smartphone’s software violated his privacy.Kim, 31, and his company MiRaeLaw on Thursday began to collect applications for a collective l

Four members of a religious cult based in Daegu were charged of killing a female colleague after arguing over her inactiveness in missionary work, police said Thursday.Police requested an arrest warrant for a key suspect and booked without detention three others who assisted the crime.They are suspected of beating the 21 year-old woman, surnamed Lee, for not following the group’s rules, on July 2.

South Korea's top Marine commander has offered to resign to take responsibility for the deadly shooting rampage by a marine in his barracks early this month, a military official said Thursday. Marine Corps Chief of Staff Yoo Nak-joon submitted his resignation to Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin on Tuesday, the official said on the condition of anonymity. "Gen. Yoo conveyed his intention to resign at

Korea's central bank froze the key interest rate on Thursday, following a rate hike in June, in the face of mounting household debt and the eurozone debt crisis.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo and his fellow policymakers held steady the benchmark seven-day repo rate, dubbed the base rate, at 3.25 percent for July.The decision is in line with a forecast by 18 out of 19 economists surveyed b

A Korean millionaire in the U.S. who made a public proposal through a matchmaking firm failed to find a partner because his wealth was concealed. The construction businessman in his 40s, who had never been married, made a public proposal through Korean dating service Sunoo, last month.　The self-made man, surnamed Kim, graduated from an American university and has accumulated 50 billion won ($47 mi

A new research revealed that children from households with smokers are more likely to develop behavioral disorders and learning problems than those from smoke-free homes.The findings were released in the journal “Pediatrics.”It was traditionally thought that secondhand smoke causes health problems for children including respiratory difficulties. A woman lights a cigarette for a photograph in New Y

Rupert Grint, who played Ron in the Harry Potter series, said he had a hard time kissing the actress Emma Watson.Ever since “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” which was released at 2001, the two participated in all the movies, alongside Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry.(Left to right) Actor Daniel Radcliffe, author J.K. Rowling, actress Emma Watson and actor Rupert Grint pose during the glo

It has been an unusually quiet year for Korean women’s golf. In recent years, the leader board at LPGA golf events has been dominated by Korean women: they combined 22 wins from 2009-2010. But this year has been disappointing with no title yet for the Koreans until last week. The deadlock was finally broken when Ryu So-yeon claimed the U.S. Women’s Open title on Monday by beating her fellow countr

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler ordered his troops to come up with a sex doll that would prevent his troops from contracting sexually transmitted diseases from prostitutes, according to reports. Author Graeme Donald’s research to the origins of the Barbie doll revealed that it may be based on a post-war German sex doll toy during the 1950’sSyphilis and gonorrhea were serious problems during World War I

A Korean Marine has hanged himself in his barracks, an official said Monday, in a new blow to the Corps after a corporal who claimed he was bullied went on a deadly shooting spree last week.The 19-year-old Private First Class, identified only as Jung, was found by colleagues Sunday night hanging in a barracks shower room in the southeastern port of Pohang, a Marine Corps spokesman said.Military in