Police said Tuesday that they booked a 29-year-old man on charges of abusing his 11-month daughter amid a growing number of child abuse cases across the nation.  (Yonhap)The Jecheon Police Station is questioning the man who is suspected of kicking the crying infant in her face and stomach on multiple occasions while quarreling with his wife earlier this month. He also allegedly beat her until the baby bled in mid-January. A witness told police the man was violent with the baby once or twice a mo

Prosecutors on Tuesday raided the residence and office of a close aide to an ex-chief of South Korea’s rail operator in its widening probe of suspected slush funds in connection with a now-defunct urban development project. Officials carry out boxes of confiscated items Tuesday from the office of an aide to the former president of the Korea Railroad Corp. in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. (Yonhap)The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said that investigators seized computer hard disks, internal re

A local court on Tuesday handed out a two-year jail term, suspended for three years, to a woman who had allegedly given birth in a squat toilet and consequently killed the baby.The 27-year-old gave birth to the baby on her own at the traditional toilet in her residence in Jeonju in March last year. The baby fell inside the toilet and died as his airway was clogged with alien substance. She allegedly knew that childbirth in the toilet might kill the baby.  (Yonhap)“Her crime is heavy as the defen

A 47-year-old Canadian was caught growing cannabis in his residence and habitually smoking it, South Korean police said Monday.According to the police, the Canadian national, who had previously been a lecturer at a university in Daegu, smuggled marijuana into Korea from Thailand in August 2010. He then grew it at the balcony in his apartment building, the police said.  (Yonhap)The man allegedly set up facilities like a ventilator, electronic heater and reflecting plate on the balcony to grow the

Korean jobseekers most want to work for tech giant Google, showed a local survey on Monday.According to a survey on 2,700 university students and job seekers by the recruitment sites Job Korea and Albamon, Google topped the list as the most desired foreign employer in the local job market, with around seven out of 10 participants saying so.  (Yonhap)Apple Korea ranked second with 25.9 percent of the votes, followed by Starbucks Korea at 16.9 percent, Nike Korea at 14.4 percent and Yuhan-Kimberly

South Korea’s top court Monday denied a man’s request for the cancellation of his marriage in a situation where the bride had not told him that she had been raped and given birth before they wed. In a suit filed by a 41-year-old man surnamed Kim, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed earlier rulings that had ordered a nullification of the marriage and demanded the 26-year-old Vietnamese woman pay him 3 million won ($2,430) in alimony. Supreme Court (Yonhap)“A person’s history about childbirth sh

South Korea’s state-appointed media monitoring agency said Sunday that it will set out guidelines to enable Web users to request for deletion of personal data online. 　Under the administrative guidelines to be proposed by the Korea Communications Commission, Web users will be able to demand that Web portals remove personal information that they do not want online. 　“We have studied the rights to be forgotten for more than a year through a group composed of legal, academic and industry experts,”

On a chilly Friday night last month, 24-year-old U.S. citizen Megan Stuckey had one of her most hurtful experiences in Korea. 　She was denied entry to a bar in Hongdae, Seoul, because she was a foreigner. 　 Ock Hyun-ju/The Korea HeraldThe bar named Green Light, infamous in the expat community for refusing foreign customers, is one of a rising number of Korean-style dating joints where people meet blind dates and one-night stands over beer and soju.　“Only Koreans are allowed because our employees

South Korea's national image is heavily affected by its cultural content, especially food and K-pop, a survey showed Saturday.It also demonstrated the need for South Korea to further diversify the supply routes of its cultural products.The two-month poll was conducted by the country's Culture Ministry and Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange from October with 6,500 respondents from 14 foreign nations.Korean food was chosen as the most popular cultural content of Korea with 46.2 pe

Defense Minister Han Min-koo on Saturday visited an Aegis-equipped destroyer tasked with immediately detecting North Korea's long-range rocket in case of a launch, his ministry said. Aboard the 7600-ton KDX-III destroyer Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong, Han instructed the troops to maintain full combat posture with North Korea poised to launch what it claims to be a space vehicle. (Yonhap)Pyongyang informed U.N. agencies that it would send a satellite into orbit between Feb. 8-25.  The minister noted that

미국 정부가 이라크 및 아프가니스탄 전쟁 당시 미군이 적군 수감자에 자행한 학대 장면이 담긴 사진들 200여장을 추가 공개했다고 AP 통신을 등 미 외신들이 5일 전했다. 미 국방부는 5일 (현지시간) 2004년과 2006년 사이에 미군 병사들이 이라크·아프가니스탄 포로에게 자행한 56건의 학대 장면이 담긴 198장의 사진을 공개했다. (美국방부/AP)사진은 대체로 어둡고 흐리지만 포로들의 팔과 다리에 멍이 들어 있거나 상처가 나있는 것을 보여준다. 이러한 사진 공개는 미국 법원이 지난해 인권단체의 손을 들어주며 정부에게 미군의 이라크·아프가니스탄 포로 학대 사진들을 공개하라고 판결한 것에 따른 것이다.      미국시민자유연맹(ACLU)은 수년간 포로 학대 관련 사진 공개를 요청해왔지만 미국 정부는 사진이 공개되면 폭력적인 반발을 일으킬 수 있고 해외 미군과 미국인이 공격을 받을 위험에 처할 수 있다는 이유로 반대해왔다. 이번에 공개된 사진들과 관련, 56건의 학대사건 중 14건은

A U.S. radar ship capable of tracking North Korean missiles has arrived in Japan, an official said Friday, as the communist nation is forging ahead with preparations for a banned long-range rocket launch.The USNS Howard O. Lorenzen "made a scheduled port visit" to the port of Sasebo near the Korean Peninsula "as part of the ship's routine presence and operations in the region," Cmdr. Bill Clinton, the spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, told Yonhap News Agency.The arrival coincides with heightened

The Pentagon on Friday released nearly 200 photographs of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, taken mostly between 2004 and 2006, involving 56 cases of alleged abuse by U.S. forces.The often dark, blurry and grainy pictures are mainly of detainees' arms and legs, revealing bruises and cuts, and they appear far less dramatic than those released more than a decade ago during allegations of torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Those now-infamous Abu Ghraib photos included images of naked detainees s

South Korean stocks are expected to move sideways during the holiday-shortened week on signs of a slowing Chinese economy and fluctuating oil prices, though falling odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike could ease downward pressure, analysts said Saturday.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) closed at 1,917.79 on Friday, down 0.36 percent from a week ago.  The index got off to a strong start after Japan decided to adopt a negative interest rate to shore up the flagging economy,

A 10-month old baby was among three dead after a 16-storey tower block was toppled by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in southern Taiwan Saturday, with rescuers battling to free residents still trapped inside.Officials said four buildings collapsed in the quake which struck the island in the early hours of the morning, but rescue efforts are centering on the tower block that tumbled onto its side.Firefighters pulled survivors from the twisted concrete, trying to access apartments through windows and

The first phone call between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping since the North's nuclear test appears to show that Beijing is still unprepared to act differently in its handling of Pyongyang, a U.S. expert said.In the 45-minute call initiated by Xi, Park asked for Chinese cooperation in efforts to put together U.N. sanctions strong and effective enough to make North Korea change its course, saying North Korea's provocations pose threats to peace in Northeast A

U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone Friday and agreed on the importance of a "strong and united international response" to North Korea's provocations, the White House said.It was the first that the two leaders have spoken since the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test. The conversation also came amid mounting calls for China to use more of its leverage with Pyongyang to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor."Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the complete and

Recent satellite imagery shows the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad of North Korea's rocket site in an indication that the communist nation is forging ahead with a planned rocket launch, a North Korea-monitoring website said Friday.The imagery taken of the North's Sohae or Dongchang-ri site on Wednesday and Thursday showed the tanker trucks at the old fuel and oxidizer bunkers, 38 North said in a report, adding that the trucks' presence more likely indicates the filling of tanks within

Chinese President Xi Jinping's rare phone call to his South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, underscores growing concerns over North Korea's defiant pursuit of missile and nuclear programs.It marked the first time that a Chinese leader has held a telephone conversation with a South Korean president over a North Korean nuclear test. No consultations were held between the leaders of the two neighbors when North Korea carried out three previous nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.Park is the fir

The United States declined comment Friday on a phone conversation between President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which the Chinese leader repeated calls for dialogue to resolve tensions on the Korean Peninsula without mentioning sanctions on North Korea."We are not going to comment on conversations that took place between China and ROK," Katina Adams, a spokesperson at the U.S.State Department, said in response to a request for comment from Yonhap News Agency.It was the firs