LOS ANGELES ―Treatment drugs can do more than improve the health of people with HIV: If administered early, medications can also reduce the spread of the disease to sexual partners and may help stem the AIDS epidemic.But many logistical hurdles stand in the way of making this strategy feasible, affordable and effective, according to experts writing in Tuesday’s edition of the journal PLoS Medicine.The medications in question are antiretroviral therapies, which prevent HIV from multiplying and dr

LOS ANGELES ― A wily parasite well known for influencing the behavior of its animal hosts appears to play a troubling role in humans, increasing the risk of suicide among women who are infected, new research shows.Chances are you or someone you know has been infiltrated by the parasite, called Toxoplasma gondii. Researchers estimate that T. gondii is carried by 10 percent to 20 percent of Americans, who can get it by changing litter used by infected cats or eating undercooked meat from an animal

LOS ANGELES ― Supporting a controversial view of how humans might have populated the Western Hemisphere, geneticists have found that groups from Asia traveled over the Bering Strait into North America in at least three separate migrations beginning more than 15,000 years ago ― not in a single wave, as has been widely thought.“We have various lines of evidence that there was more than one migration,” said Dr. Andres Ruiz-Linares, a professor of human genetics at University College London and seni

Here is a list of helpful emergency medicines and medical supplies you should prepare for your summer vacation:Medicines: antipyretic-analgesics, digestive medicine, antacids, anti-inflammatory agents, skin ointment containing antibiotics, antiseptic agentsMedical supplies: thermometer, dressing sets, plasters, tweezers, scissors for medical purposes, cotton Also, it is good to have sunscreen agents, Vaseline and other skin ointments for burns.Antipyretic-analgesics and digestive medicine can be

The Education Ministry announced Tuesday that it will combine language centers and cultural centers run overseas to enhance efficiency in promoting Korean culture and language.The ministry said a revised bill to the act on education support for Korean nationals residing abroad was passed at the Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday. The amendment removes clauses about the establishment and management of language centers, which will allow the integration of language and cultural institutes. The bill wi

Korean scientists found that an enzyme suppressing protein aging also causes and accelerates cancer growth, which could open a new door to treating the fatal disease.Sunkyunkwan University professor Han Jeung-whan and his research team found that an enzyme, called Protein L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase or PIMT, negatively regulates another protein, known as protein 53.P53 plays an important role in reducing the growth of cancer cells and killing them. It was previously thought that PIMT only he

A 31-year-old middle school teacher has been convicted of sexual harassment for using his mobile phone to record about 240 women largely in the school and on subways for more than two years.He was caught secretly photographing a woman under her skirt on the stairs of a Seoul subway station. Police found more than 500 indecent video files saved on his memory card. Victims included students, parents and even female teachers he knows well. The teacher was dismissed from his post immediately. In May

Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday that foreign residents’ biggest concerns appear to be work-related problems such as delayed payment, salary and health insurance.Of more than 3,500 foreign residents who received counseling from the city provided at stations, schools and community centers, around 60 percent were most worried about problems at work. The city has provided counseling since January to foreign workers to help them better adjust.Another 30 percent said their biggest concerns s

A fourth grader in Gangwon Province is believed to have killed herself Tuesday morning, leaving a letter that read, “Life is too tough.”The police said the 10-year-old was found dead by her mother in the garden of their apartment building where they lived on the 11th floor. “After I received a call from her teacher that she did not come to school, I scolded her on the phone since it was a test day. She did not answer the phone when I called her again. I felt strange and went home to find her,” t

 Mayor says Seoul will set up city management research centerSeoul City is to embark on a project to spread its urban development and management know-how overseas, especially to developing countries.The metropolitan government plans to establish a new institution in charge of cooperation with foreign cities in areas including environment, transport, infrastructure and information technology-based governance. The globalization program is also aimed at helping developing countries boost the compet

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Friday that it arrested 18 Korean pimps without detention who lured Korean women into working as prostitutes in Australia.The police said the owner of a brothel, surnamed Jang, 32, together with other brokers brought the Korean women to Australia on working holiday visas. Jang has reportedly been bringing them to his brothel in Sydney since 2009.He also held drug orgies where he took drugs such as MDMA,commonly known as ecstasy, and forced the women to u

Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday that it will develop a smartphone application by 2014 through which citizens can process their civil affairs.The city will invest more than 250 million won ($216,000) in the development of the application equipped with antivirus programs and password protection for the security of personal information.Citizens will be able to use all the services with the mobile app that are currently available on the city’s internet website such as paying taxes and issu

Former Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyung on Wednesday denied a report that he received money from a savings bank chief arrested in May for embezzlement and illegal loans.The Chosun Ilbo reported that the prosecutor’s office has secured testimony from Lim Suk, chairman of Solomon Savings Bank, that he bribed Yoon to save his ailing company from suspension. Yoon admitted that he met with Lim but denied taking bribes. The prosecutors also said they have yet to find evidence of wrongdoing. “I met wi

Seoul Metropolitan Government on Thursday unveiled a plan to install solar panels on around 10,000 buildings, schools and houses by 2014.The city aims to increase the use of photovoltaic energy to 320 megawatts of electricity by that year. Half of the energy will be generated from rooftops or idle facilities of public offices and schools, while the other half from private buildings and houses. The city will also make an online solar map that shows the expected generating capacity of the solar po

Students from different races, countries still face discrimination despite society’s effortsAn American English teacher recently led her class in a ball game to help them learn. Whoever had the ball had to throw it and exchange seats with the classmate who caught it. They all enjoyed themselves, except for one ― a Japanese-Korean child, whom the other students called “dirty.” “If we passed a ball around in a circle, it would stop with him, (and) no one wanted to touch the ball after him. They’d

Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to double the proportion of new public facilities using renewable energy sources from the current 10 percent to 20 percent by 2014.The city said it will make use of geothermal and solar energy and solar heat and also install energy-efficient insulating and ventilating systems to make city buildings greener.These efforts are expected to reduce the use of fossil fuels, which now take up 90 percent of the entire energy consumption, to 60 percent. From the second

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was elected as chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate Change at its meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Sunday.The council is an alliance of leaders of 70 metropolitan cities including Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Montreal aimed at addressing climate change and sustainable development. Park will serve for two years.The city government also signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives to open the offic

Thousands of taxi drivers are expected to go on a one-day strike next week, demanding that the government come up with measures to support their business from soaring fuel prices. For 24 hours from midnight Wednesday, more than half of the country’s 200,000 taxi workers from several unions will not drive, union officials said. They demand that the government alleviate the growing burden of fuel costs through an outright reduction of liquefied petroleum gas prices, wider access to the cheaper com

A local court on Friday sentenced to death a Korean-Chinese man accused of kidnapping, killing and chopping into pieces a woman in a high-profile case that led to the resignation of police chief Cho Hyun-oh.Oh Won-choon, or Wu Yuanchuan, 42, was arrested for abduction and murder of a 28-year-old woman in April in Suwon, south of Seoul. He is also accused of dismembering the victim’s body, carving out 365 pieces of her flesh. “Capital punishment is unavoidable for the defendant, who, despite havi

Kim Hwa-seon, a Korean victim of forced sexual slavery during the Japanese colonial period, died Wednesday.Kim died of natural causes at a hospital in Gwangju, according to the House of Sharing, an organization for the so-called comfort women. She was 86.Kim was taken by Japan’s Imperial Army to Singapore in 1941. After Korea’s independence she lived alone in the city of Daejeon until she moved to live at the House of Sharing in 2011. The number of women staying at the facility has been reduced