Most Popular
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Qoo10 liquidity crisis sparks massive complaints, fears of wider damage
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Yoon urges municipalities to embrace foreigners
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What is happening at Hybe?
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S. Korea to consent to Japan's Sado mines gaining World Heritage status: official
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Korea unveils tax reform bill to spur economy
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Actor’s excessive airport security sparks probe into human rights violations
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Man who let his father die due to financial difficulties to be released on parole
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Actor Yoo Ah-in accused of sexual attack
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S. Korea, China shifting from tensions to cooperation: Seoul
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LG Electronics achieves record earnings in Q2
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Baekhyun of EXO to star in SM-produced musical
Baek-hyun of EXO. ( SM Entertainment)Baekhyun, a member of K-pop boy band EXO, is venturing into a new genre ― musicals.He will take the lead role in “Singin’ in the Rain,” to be produced by SM Culture & Contents Co., a subsidiary of SM Entertainment.Baekhyun will play Don Lockwood, the male protagonist, in the stage production based on the 1952 namesake musical movie directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.Fellow SM stars including Super Junior’s Kyuhyun and SHINee’s Onew will also be in the c
April 24, 2014
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Michael Bay reboots ‘Transformers’
NEW YORK (AP) ― Summer is the season of Michael Bay. As much as anyone else, Bay ― in movies like “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Transformers” ― has shaped what the summer movie is: its quick-cutting bombast, its visual-effects flourish, its capacity for mass destruction. This summer, he’ll release “Transformers: Age of Extinction” (June 27), the fourth film in the franchise, with a revamped cast led by Mark Wahlberg. The 49-year-old Bay, who also produces “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (Aug.
FilmApril 24, 2014
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Actor Kim Soo-hyun donates W300 million for Sewol victims
Kim Soo-hyun, one of Korea’s hottest TV stars, will donate 300 million won ($289,000) for the young victims and survivors of the Sewol ferry sinking, joining a slew of celebrities in offering aid, donations and condolences in the wake of one of the country’s worst maritime calamities ever. “Kim Soo-hyun will be donating the money directly to Danwon High School in Ansan. All decisions, including the amount and recipients, are his own,” the actor’s agency said Thursday. Over 300 students and teach
April 24, 2014
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CJ E&M cancels Ansan Valley Rock Festival
The annual Ansan Valley Rock Festival, formerly known as the Jisan Valley Rock Festival, has been cancelled this year amid the nation’s grief over the lives lost in the Sewol ferry sinking.The three-day fest relocated its stages to the Daebu Sea Breeze Theme Park in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province last year. The 2014 edition of the rock festival was originally scheduled for July 25-27.Most of the victims in the tragedy were students from Ansan’s Danwon High School. As of Thursday morning, more than 160
April 24, 2014
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Real Elizabeth Seton revealed
American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth SetonBy Joan Barthel (Thomas Dunne)Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was an American original. Born into New York’s upper crust in 1774, she was the daughter of a prominent doctor, raised a devout Episcopalian, married a well-to-do businessman, William Seton, had five children and worked with others from her parish, Trinity Church, to assist needy widows and children. When the Napoleonic Wars took several of his ships, William Seton suffered bankruptcy, and Elizabe
BooksApril 24, 2014
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‘Shakespeare’ novel rewards patience
The Secret Life of William ShakespeareBy Jude Morgan (St. Martin’s)We know so much about William Shakespeare, and yet we know so little.Through documents public and private, we know that indeed Shakespeare did exist; we know about his family (his father, for instance, was a once-prominent leather worker in Stratford); we know he married a woman, Anne Hathaway, who was eight years older and who gave birth six months after their marriage; we know they had three children and their only son died at
BooksApril 24, 2014
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Prolific writer lived a life full of contradictions
When John Updike died in 2009 at the age of 76, followers of American literature could not quite comprehend it. Novels, criticism and poetry (60 books) had flowed like a river from Updike’s pen since his years as a Harvard undergraduate. It was as if the writer vanished midsentence.One of Updike’s last public appearances before his lung-cancer diagnosis was in 2008 at Seattle Arts & Lectures ― at the time Updike thought he had “walking pneumonia.”He appeared with Seattle novelist David Guterson,
BooksApril 24, 2014
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‘You Must Remember This’ recalls Hollywood’s golden era
Robert Wagner is in a reflective mood.“Movies last forever,” noted the veteran actor (“Broken Lance,” “The Pink Panther,” the “Austin Powers” series), but the Hollywood he once knew has all but disappeared.“I turned around, and it was all gone,” Wagner, 84, said recently in Beverly Hills.Known as R.J. to his friends and colleagues, he’s dapper, charming, handsome and very much cut from the same cloth as the suave characters he played in the TV series “It Takes a Thief” and “Hart to Hart,” in whi
FilmApril 24, 2014
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Ewha Womans Univ. names new president
Ewha Womans University announced Thursday that Choi Kyung-hee, a professor in the department of science education, was named its new president.The university board held a meeting early in the day and confirmed the 51-year-old educator as the school’s head. She was selected out of three female candidates, all of whom are currently members of the university staff.She will begin her four-year term on Aug. 1, succeeding Kim Sun-uk.Choi received her doctoral degree in the same field in 1994, and has
PeopleApril 24, 2014
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Tourism hit hard by ferry accident
Local festivals, school trips and ferry tours have been canceled or delayed after the deadly ferry sinking off the southern coast last week, bringing the tourism industry to a grinding halt. Provincial governments are now scrapping plans to start spring festivals in May. Jeolla Province announced it has canceled the popular Hampyeong Butterfly Festival, scheduled to kick off on May 2. Other major spring festivals such as the Icheon Ceramics Festival, originally scheduled to start on Friday, and
TravelApril 23, 2014
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[Uniquely Korean] Street food evolves
Kim Hee-sook and her husband came up with a recipe for a crispy sweet pancake, a variation of hotteok, a traditional Korean pancake stuffed with sugar, 18 years ago. They set up a food stall on a street in Insa-dong. Their hotteok made with corn starch and glutinous rice became an instant hit. It is now one of the must-taste street snacks in the popular tourist spot. “Others started imitating us,” she said, constantly flipping the round, flat hotteok. Her hotteok is filled with a mix of up to 13
FoodApril 23, 2014
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Reality beyond statistics
We live in a world of statistics. Statistics expressed in the form of percentages, graphs and pie charts are everywhere. Their stated aim is to paint an accurate picture of reality with numbers. But European avant-garde theater group Rimini Protokoll challenges this notion and aims to show what the dry statistics fail to show. With its series of “100% city” shows, it has been giving faces to the numbers, by putting 100 people of a city on stage to answer questions that go beyond regular statisti
PerformanceApril 23, 2014
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Neil Patrick Harris crushes it in ‘Hedwig’
NEW YORK (AP) ― It’s obvious from the first moments of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” that star Neil Patrick Harris is doing something special. And it’s not just trying on a new role. He is lowered to the stage in a jumpsuit and ferociously feathered blond wig and immediately begins the show’s first rock-punk song, getting down on all fours, grinding into the microphone stand or licking the guitarist’s strings. The crowd inside of the Belasco Theatre, where the show opened Tuesday, loses its mind,
PerformanceApril 23, 2014
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Amsterdam chief conductor Mariss Jansons to step down
THE HAGUE (AFP) ― The chief conductor of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariss Jansons, is to step down at the end of the season after leading the world-famous ensemble for a decade, the RCO announced on Tuesday.“Today ... chief conductor Mariss Jansons informed the musicians and staff members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra that Maestro Jansons will resign his position after the 2014-2015 season,” the RCO said in a statement.Health concerns were believed to be the reason for hi
PerformanceApril 23, 2014
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Bon Jovi helps open, fund low-income housing in Philly
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― Jon Bon Jovi’s hit tune “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?” took on new meaning Tuesday as the rock star cut the ribbon on a namesake housing development for low-income residents and the formerly homeless in Philadelphia. The 55-unit JBJ Soul Homes opened in the Francisville neighborhood after about 18 months of construction. Bon Jovi’s Soul Foundation provided the lead gift for the $16.6 million complex, which he hopes will offer tenants the support they need to get back on their
PeopleApril 23, 2014
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A Polish take on ‘Macbeth’
Murder, betrayal, sex and vengeance ― no story shows the savage behavior that some humans succumb to in order to fulfill their ordained prophecies or the unrelenting grasp that evil can have on one’s soul like the power-hungry tale of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”“Let not light see my black and deep desires,” Shakespeare wrote in the depiction of Macbeth’s inner turmoil as he longed to murder the king and overtake his throne. Considered one of Shakespeare’s most diabolical and compelling trag
PerformanceApril 23, 2014
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Composer Yoon Il-sang writes requiem for Sewol victims
As the death toll from the ferry accident continues to rise day by day, veteran composer Yoon Il-sang has written a requiem for the victims.“I dedicate this song to the Sewol victims who have passed away ... I pray that they will be happy in the afterlife,” Yoon Il-sang wrote on his Twitter page on Wednesday after unveiling the elegy on his SoundCloud account.“Take Care,” a calm and doleful piano composition, was written, arranged and played by the composer himself.“It was difficult to work on b
April 23, 2014
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Dress codes: What should schools limit?
EVANSTON, Illinois (AP) ― They’re called leggings ― popular fashion items that are tight-fitting pants to some, and glorified tights to others. Younger girls often wear them as pants with little fuss. But as those same girls approach middle school, leggings have become a clothing accessory that’s increasingly controversial ― and seemingly, the favorite new target of the school dress code. Some schools have banned leggings outright. Others have set limits. Haven Middle School in Evanston, just no
Arts & DesignApril 23, 2014
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London looks to give voice to muted buskers
LONDON (AFP) ― Concerned that London’s seasoned street musicians are being silenced by excessive regulation, mayor Boris Johnson is leading calls for the buskers’ voices, and guitars, to be heard again.Camden Town in north London, with its punks and a main street bristling with “alternative” shops, has long been a favored destination for young visitors. But several months ago, buskers were ordered to silence their instruments by 9 p.m.Some fear that in bowing to the residents’ complaints about n
CultureApril 23, 2014
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Magnifying glasses become necklaces, handkerchiefs
As a child, jewelry designer Yoon Hye-rim loved playing with her magnifying glass. “I’ve always been an observer,” she said. “I would use it to observe flowers, insects and other things in nature.”The up-and-coming designer recently launched a brand named “Efluvi,” which offers magnifying glasses in different forms, including necklaces, handkerchiefs, and even paperweights. She is one of the artists-in-residence at Seoul Art Space Sindang, an artist residency program funded by the government at
Arts & DesignApril 23, 2014