Of all the obstacles athletes have had to overcome to compete in the Olympics, perhaps the most controversial has been the gender test.Originally designed to prevent men from competing in women’s events, it is based on the premise that competitors can be sorted into two categories via established scientific rules. But the biological boundaries of gender aren’t always clear.Consider the Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patino. A gender test revealed that she had a Y chromosome, which normally

SEATTLE ― Women with metastatic breast cancer treated with a combination of two estrogen-blocking drugs survived more than six months longer than those treated with just one of the drugs or one followed by the other, according to a study involving nearly 700 women.It’s the first time such improvement in overall survival has been seen in trials of first-line hormonal therapy for hormone-receptive metastatic breast cancer, the study authors said.“We’re finding a lot of other ways of treating these

The prolonged scorching weather is putting people at risk of not only heat-related illnesses but waterborne diseases as well. Seoul City has been gripped by a weeks-long heat wave, with the mercury often soaring above 35 degrees Celsius and nighttime highs staying above 25 C, resulting in 13 consecutive tropical nights since July 27.A total of 89 people have been taken to the hospital for heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke and dehydration since June, whereas 27 people suffered from such i

Kim Hai-yung’s life used to be full of affliction, failures and discrimination. She was permanently disabled by her father’s violence, habitually abused by her mother and unwelcomed by schools, friends and society. That was until 1990, when she went to southern Africa as a volunteer worker. “When I first saw the children in poverty and despair as I used to be, I thought of what I could do for them,” Kim, 47, said.She has devoted herself to education in the village at Good Hope, Botswana, for 14

The nation is on high alert over fast-spreading algal blooms on major rivers and lakes, threatening to affect public health and drinking water. The government attributes the algae to hot weather and the long drought. Activists blame the government’s massive development of four rivers that they claim slowed water flows and damaged the eco-system. Rapid increases in algae are typically caused by nutrient enrichment, high temperatures and still water conditions. Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria,

The government plans to require tobacco firms to put graphic images illustrating the health hazards of smoking on their packages beginning early next year.The packages will also have to contain detailed information of tobacco ingredients and will not be allowed to feature words deemed to mislead consumers about smoking’s health effects. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday it plans to issue a public notification of the revised National Health Promotion Law this month as part of its cam

Seoul National University will offer scholarships and benefits to foreign students in an effort to foster Korea-friendly human resources, the school said Sunday. Some 332 undergraduate and graduate students have been selected and will study at the university from the second semester starting in September, it said. Of them, 73 are undergraduates, 188 graduates, and 71 doctoral students. They are mostly from developing nations including Vietnam, China and Mongolia, with Chinese taking up the most

The Education Ministry said on Sunday that it would devise a set of guidelines on the political neutrality of textbooks.The ministry’s move comes after controversy arose over literary works by an opposition politician that appear in middle-school textbooks.A team of private experts and education officials will start researching by the end of this month on ways to improve the current textbook-screening system. It aims to formulate guidelines based on which the state-run textbook review board will

The prosecution on Friday cleared Nexon, an online game company, of responsibility for the leak of private information of its 13.2 million members last November.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it has decided not to indict company chief executive Seo Min and security officials for allegedly mishandling user data due to the lack of evidence.“It is hard to find any loose management of personal information, and Nexon had taken security measures when the incident occurred,” the pr

The Korea Immigration Service said Thursday that the number of inbound and outbound air passengers through Incheon International Airport hit a record high of 3.2 million in July.The figure shows an eight percent increase from the year earlier when 2.9 million people passed through the airport.The immigration office cited the vacation season as the reason behind. Around 60,000 passengers departed between July 23 and 29 to their destinations from the airport, up from 47,000 during the same days la

Seoul Metropolitan Government will put its street trees up for adoption, offering citizens a chance to look after the plants that line them, officials said Thursday. The “Adopt-a-Tree” project will launch in September with about 8,600 trees. It will be expanded to all 284,000 of its trees next year, the officials said. The trees will be allotted to institutions only, such as schools and companies, but not to individuals. Interested institutions should send in an application, officials said, alth

More teens get plastic surgery in pursuit of beautyPlastic surgeon Na Min-hwa gets more teenage patients in July and August than at any other time of the year. “The number of teen patients increases especially during the summer and winter vacations,” said Na who runs YEROM Plastic Clinic in Gangnam, Seoul. “Most of them go under the knife for aesthetic reasons rather than medical.”The patients getting younger at this time of the year is not a trend confined to Na’s clinic. More and more teenager

EPS, a private language school, and ROKING KOREA, a magazine publisher, have organized a youth camp called the Conflict Consortium Summer Camp. The camp began last Friday and runs to Sunday at the Korea Learning Resort in Gyeonggi Province. The camp aims to provide teens with leadership skills and improving their understanding of social conflicts and the ability to resolve them. The University of Colorado initially ran the leadership camp. Lyman McLallen, an English professor from Hankuk Univers

Seoul began implementing new measures Monday requiring major buildings to disclose their electricity use and expanding the scope of facilities subject to monitoring of energy consumption. Seoul Metropolitan Government issued a municipal ordinance under which the top 2 percent of energy-guzzling buildings or locations are asked to make public their energy usage through an electric display board.Some of the highest energy consumers, the officials said at a press briefing, are Seoul National Univer

A report on South Korean defense policies showed that North Korean defectors wish to serve their military service in the South, which is banned under the military law. The quarterly report of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-funded defense think tank, said that seven out of eight North Koreans who fled the reclusive state between 2003 and 2010 want to enlist in the army. “I feel left out when thinking that the South Korean government does not trust the defectors although they sa

Koreans’ average score for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL, rose the fastest in the world from 2006 to 2011, data showed Thursday.Out of a total score of 120, Koreans’ average results increased to 82 in 2011 from 72 in 2006. The country’s ranking jumped to 70th among 150 test-taking countries from 111th out of 147 countries, according to Lee Ik Hoon Language Institute.The private language school analyzed six-year data published by the Educational Testing Services, a U.S.-base

Konkuk University in Seoul has named Song Hee-young, a professor of economics, as its new president. University officials said Song was elected to the position at a board meeting on Wednesday. The newly-elected president started teaching at the college of commerce and economics at the university in 1982, and served as director at the office of strategy and finance for five years from 1991, then vice president from 1998 to 2000. He was a committee member of the Local Press Commission, which suppo

Some 500 men customers of the biggest room salon in Korea were questioned by prosecutors over charges of illegal sex trade earlier this month, officials said. They were summoned by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office as part of an investigation into the bar named “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” or “YTT,” which hired more than 500 hostesses.The owner of the salon, known only by his surname Kim, is suspected of bribing police officers, evading taxes and soliciting prostitution in his 19-st

Unionized short-term contract workers at schools nationwide threatened to go on a general strike next month, demanding improved employment status and a salary system that would ensure job security and more benefits.A group of labor unions of non-regular workers recently called for collective bargaining with the Education Ministry and 17 municipal and gubernatorial educational offices, according to the ministry.The ministry and a majority of local authorities rejected the negotiations because the

Foreign direct investment in Seoul City has reached a record high in the first half of the year, the first since the 2008 financial crisis, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Thursday.Investment pledged in the six months through June totaled 3 billion won ($2.6 million), up 56.6 percent from the same period a year ago. The amount executed during the period stood at 2.4 billion won, more than double the corresponding figure in 2011. Investment from Japan more than tripled, which Seoul offi