The country’s largest Muslim event started Thursday in Korea amid escalating concerns over the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak. Hundreds of Muslims gathered at a mosque in central Seoul on the first day of the Ramadan. About 100,000 Muslims in Korea are expected to practice the tradition of fasting from dawn to sunset for a month, officials in the capital said. As public concerns persisted over MERS spreading, Seoul City and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have persuaded a numb

Seoul City said Thursday it would hike transportation fares after months of discussion over balancing the budget deficit and public resistance. Seoul Metropolitan Government said subway fares would be raised by 200 won ($0.18) and bus fares by 150 won starting from June 27. The basic fee of both subway and bus fares is currently 1,050 won for adults.This is the capital’s first public transportation fare hike in three years. The city has recently faced public resistance for not gathering public o

A 48-year-old funeral worker sealed a body in a leakproof bag after wrapping it with a plastic bag. Cleaning and preservation treatments were skipped. The sealed corpse was immediately sent to a cremation facility and turned to ash in just a few hours. Looking at the flames in the distance, the bereaved families remained lethargic.The whole process, rushed and hushed, only seemed to amplify the sudden tragedy that hit the family, to whom Middle East respiratory syndrome was something of a farawa

Dozens of foreigners have been put in quarantine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, but health authorities have yet to identify all of their nationalities, sources said Tuesday.The Health and Welfare Ministry said that about 20 to 30 foreigners in Korea were ordered to be under home monitoring as they were suspected to have been exposed to MERS-confirmed patients. As of Tuesday, more than 5,000 individuals in the country are being monitored at home for possible infection. The exact number and

Samsung Medical Center in Seoul was partially shut down Sunday as more cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome were confirmed in the hospital. Meanwhile, the death toll across the country reached 15 and the number of those infected 145. Hospital officials said they would stop receiving outpatients, suspend operations and restrict the visitors of hospitalized patients until June 24 as part of its efforts to contain the virus. As of Sunday afternoon, 19 new cases were reported, according to the

South Korea will host a global conservation forum next month as part of its efforts to raise awareness on the importance of nature and promote sustainable development, officials said Thursday. The Environment Ministry said it will cohost the “World Leaders’ Conservation Forum 2015” in Jejudo Island on July 7-9. The forum is an upgraded event of the World Leaders Dialogues, which was first initiated at the World Conservation Congress 2012 in Jejudo. Under the theme of “Nature: A Path to Peace and

MANILA ― Asian economic and law experts gathered in Manila, the Philippines, Wednesday to stress the importance of rooting out corruption as an essential move to ensure domestic development and global advancement at an international anticorruption forum. More than 180 experts and high-ranking officials participated in the forum “Institutionalizing Anticorruption and Good Governance” to seek identity areas for targeted intervention, as well as general tools and strategies to combat corruption. “T

For the estimated over 2.5 billion people around the world who are connected to the Internet, it is impossible to imagine life without it. The Internet has rewoven the fabric of our daily lives ― how we communicate with each other, work and entertain ourselves ― and become a foundation of the global economy. Seemingly on a daily basis, new businesses that use the Internet as their foundation are disrupting and often replacing long-standing business models and industries. From music and video to

The Ministry of Health and municipalities vowed Sunday to strengthen their mutual efforts to combat the fast-spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome amid escalating public concerns over the central and local governments colliding in attempts to handle the disease. The health minister and elected leaders of four local city governments ― the Seoul and Daejeon mayors and the Gyeonggi and South Chungcheong provincial governors ― pledged to immediately form a working level consultative body and sh

Seoul City pledged Thursday to introduce a special tourist route by linking four local sightseeing spots that appeared in the recent “Avengers” film, but some doubt how effective the plan will be.Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would offer a tourist course with four public spots ― Sangam Digital Media City, the old steel manufacturing area, Gangnam-daero and the Floating Island on the Hangang River. These locations were used in the shooting of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which drew more tha

The first-ever amusement park in Seoul would be upgraded with eco-friendly rides as part of the city’s efforts to offer a wider range of entertainment opportunities for children, officials said Wednesday. Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would replace the rides at Seoul Land in Seoul Grand Park with electricity-zero rides by 2020. The rides will be run by manpower with a minimal amount of electricity, allowing children to physically play like those in German theme park Ketteler Hof. The amu

Korea’s major IT companies mostly do not use renewable energy despite increasing public calls for environment-friendly measures, a global civic group report showed Wednesday. According to Greenpeace Korea, the country’s seven major Internet firms were found to have used less than 1 percent renewable energy for running their data centers. Most are supplied by electricity from fossil fuels or nuclear power. IT corporate service provider SK C&C used only 1 percent solar power for their energy suppl

Seoul City has accelerated its probe into the suspected pollution of the U.S. military base in the capital as part of its efforts to seek the source of oil leaks, officials said Monday. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it obtained 18 underground water samples among 32 boreholes in Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul last week. The central government will look into whether the samples contain toxic volatile substances such as benzene, xylene and toluene. Korean environment officials suspect t

The number of marriage visa holders in South Korea has fallen for seven consecutive months after visa regulations were tightened, Justice Ministry officials said Friday. The ministry said the number of people on foreign spouse visas in the country dropped to 150,000 as of last month, about a 1 percent year-on-year decrease.The figure began to gradually fall last October, especially among women. The number of women marriage visa holders stood at about 127,000 last month, down by 1.5 percent compa

Lee Ye-do, a 46-year-old office worker in Daejeon, lost his wife earlier this month. She suffered from a mystery lung-related disease for more than a decade. “When the symptoms first showed years ago, doctors couldn’t figure out the cause. She received pneumonia treatment because the symptoms were similar. But her condition didn’t get better,” Lee recalled. It was around the time she gave birth to their second son in 2001, he told The Korea Herald.In 2011, the couple finally found out that she w

The divorce rate of old couples surpassed that of newlyweds in Seoul, demonstrating a fast-changing public perception toward marriage, data showed Wednesday. According to a survey conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, couples splitting up after living together for over two decades accounted for 32 percent of the total divorce cases last year, about 10 percentage points higher than that of newlywed couples with less than four years of marriage.Last year, 19,500 couples divorced, while a

Han Eun-suk, a 53-year-old housewife in southern Seoul, is meticulous in selecting her cooking ingredients, especially water. She never drinks tap water, citing an unpleasant chemical smell and safety concerns. Worried about her family’s health, she has installed a water purifier at home instead. “There’s a weird smell in tap water. How can you trust tap water that comes through old underground pipes? It’s always better to be safer,” Han said. Han is part of the majority of Koreans who are reluc

Tourists arriving to Incheon International Airport will be able to directly travel to Yeouido and eastern Seoul, including Gangnam and Songpa, via subway without transferring starting from 2020, officials said Tuesday.Seoul Metropolitan Government said that the direct connect will be operated between the Incheon Airport Railroad Express and Seoul Subway Line No. 9 from 2020 as part of the government’s efforts to provide better transportation service for tourists and local residents.The direct co

South Korean men are more satisfied with their spouses than women are, the main reason being the wives shouldering more household chores than the husbands, a public survey showed Wednesday. According to a survey conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government last year, 73.2 percent of surveyed husbands in the capital responded that they are content with their spouses, with 40 percent being very satisfied. For wives, however, only 62.6 percent said they are satisfied with their husbands. Over 10

Nearly half of the households in Seoul City have one or two members, reflecting a fast-changing living trend, a public survey showed Monday.According to the survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 48 percent of the households belonged to these two categories. The two-member households were mostly married couples without children.The annual survey also showed that 7.5 percent of the households were either separated or divorced, with those in their 40s and 50s occupying the highest proportion