SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's tax agency said Tuesday it will beef up its investigation into large companies and wealthy citizens this year, in a bid to toughen its crackdown on tax evasion and expand the nation's overall tax revenue base. The National Tax Service (NTS) plans to intensify

SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Yonhap) -- The national railroad operator received a flurry of passenger complaints after one of its high-speed trains missed a key station and made a dangerous return trip back to the missed stop late Monday.Korail said one of its Korea Train Express (KTX) trains, heading to Busan fr

A hormone found in body fat could develop the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in older women, a study found."It is well established that insulin signaling is dysfunctional in the brains of patients with AD, and since adiponectin enhances insulin sensitivity, one would also expect beneficial

NEW YORK (AP) — Aretha Franklin is engaged to longtime friend William "Willie" Wilkerson.The Grammy-winning singer told The Associated Press in a statement Monday that she and Wilkerson are considering a summer wedding, perhaps in Miami Beach, Fla. The Queen of Soul wants to follow the ceremon

PARIS, Jan 2, 2012 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy knew about a shell company used to channel arms sales commissions in the 1990s, French media said Monday, amid a probe into alleged illegal party funding in France.The Liberation daily quoted testimony to a judge from a former senior civil servant

SYDNEY, Jan 2, 2012 (AFP) - An Australian cancer patient who shot to global attention after a tribute video for his wife went viral on the Internet died on Monday in hospital, his family said.Kristian Anderson, 36, and his young family wound up on television after US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey le

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ NASA kicked off the new year with a pair of probes circling the moon in the latest mission to understand how Earth's closest neighbor formed.There was no champagne popping in the mission control room at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the Grail spacecraft arrived back-to-b

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- Convicted sex offenders will be banned from working as health-care providers or home-study teachers from the second half of this year, the government said on Monday.The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said convicted sex offenders will be barred from holding such jobs

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached.Police in Beebe said dozens of

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Monday ordered the former agency of South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na to pay her outstanding portions of her endorsement money.The Seoul Central District Court said it has handed down a settlement between Kim and IB Sports, under which the company must p

NEW DELHI (AP) _ An official says at least 16 people have died after drinking a toxic home-brewed liquor over the weekend in southern India.Gaurav Uppal, a top district administrator, says another 24 poor villagers are being treated in hospitals in the Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh state. An In

SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that South Korea will open a "window of opportunity" in improving relations with North Korea as the North's new leader Kim Jong-un took over the communist state following the death of his father. "The most important target at this moment

SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Yonhap) -- A ruling party lawmaker said Monday that he will leave the Grand National Party (GNP) over a cyber attack on the national election watchdog involving one of his aides, though he continued to deny any involvement in the widening scandal.The move came after the party's emerge

BOCHUM, Germany,  Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, may ease heart symptoms because it makes stiffened cardiac walls more elastic, U.S. and German researchers say.Dr. Wolfgang Linke of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum Institute of Physiology, in cooperation with colleague

SEOUL, Jan. 1 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un visited a tank division on Sunday, the state media said, paying his first apparent inspection visit to the military since the death of his father in a clear indication that he would inherit Kim Jong-il's "military-first" policy. The youn

ULSAN, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) -- An explosion occurred at a shipyard in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan on Friday, killing four workers, police said.The explosion is believed to have been set off by an oxygen cutting machine and took place at a small-size shipmaker, Sejin Heavy Industries, based

SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak named a veteran economist as trade minister on Friday, an official said, as the country's free trade agreement with the United States is set to take effect early next year. In a minor Cabinet reshuffle, Bark Tae-ho, a professor of the Graduate Schoo

(Yonhap News)Kim Geun-tae, a renowned pro-democracy activist and politician who laid the cornerstone of South Korean democracy, died of complications from pneumonia and blood poisoning on Friday. He was 64.He served as leader of the former ruling Uri Party and health and welfare minister during the

North Korea's state news agency has transmitted altered photographs of the funeral procession for the late leader Kim Jong-il held in Pyongyang on Wednesday, New York Times reported.The New York Times and the digital forensics expert Hany Farid of Dartmouth College analyzed a photograph distributed

ATLANTA (AP) — An Oklahoma baby is the third infant this month sickened by a rare type of bacteria sometimes associated with tainted powdered infant formula.The child, from Tulsa County, was infected with Cronobacter sakazakii but fully recovered, health officials said Wednesday. An Illinois c