Smuggler arrested for helping N. Korea launch cyber attack
Police have arrested a smuggler for allegedly helping North Korean intelligence attempt cyber terrorism on government computer networks through online game software. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Sunday that the 39-year-old man, surnamed Cho, is under investigation for purchasing 10 versions of gambling software with malicious code from North Korean agents in China and […]
High TOEIC scorers not fluent in English
Park Jai-sang, a 27-year-old college graduate in Seoul, is nicknamed a “TOEIC genius” among his peers because every time he takes the English proficiency test, he scores higher than 900. Considering his score, his level of proficiency should be excellent. When he applied to work at a major trading company, he was even asked by […]
Calls mount to tackle favoritism for athletes
Baseball players from Kyungki and Paichai high schools compete during a national tournament held in Seoul. The recent controversy over academic privileges enjoyed by award winning athletes is touching off a debate about reform of their admission, attendance and graduation from top universities. The nation’s figure skating heroine Kim Yu-na has suffered recent accusations over […]
Prolonged Syrian crisis widens gap among people
DAMASCUS, June 3 (Xinhua) — The longer the current crisis in Syria lingers, the wider the gap goes among the Syrian people, as the topic of who is with and who is against the government has become the main talk of the country. The 15-month bloody unrest continues with no foreseeable end so far. It […]
Turkish pianist accused of insulting Islam
Fazıl Say, a Turkish pianist and composer with an international career who is facing a court case in Turkey for insulting Islam on account of reposting a message written by someone else on Twitter, has said, “It is unbelievable that it was made into a court case.” In Say’s much-debated Twitter message, heaven’s promise of […]
Are privileges for elite athletes necessary evil?
This is the first in a series of articles aimed at helping determine whether the current system of rewarding outstanding athletes with privileges is still relevant or needs changing. — ED. Does Korea need to keep the current “old” system of awarding outstanding athletes with exemptions from mandatory military services and “unearned” diplomas from universities […]
Mubarak given life sentence for killing protesters
The Cairo criminal court has sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to life imprisonment on Saturday (June 2) as he was declared guilty for deaths of protesters during an uprising in January 2011. Mubarak has been under arrest at the International Medical Center near Cairo. Mubarak, his two sons, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and six […]
More grownup children live with parents
Koreans once held that when children became adults, they supported their parents. However, this is no longer the general trend, with more aging parents having to support adult sons and daughters, according to a Seoul City report Friday. The number of people in their 30s or 40s still living at home with their parents almost […]
Turkish PM calls world attention to massacred Syrian children
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday called on the world to pay heed to the desperation of families whose children were massacred in Syria. Speaking at a summit of the Alliance of Civilizations, a forum promoting understanding between the Western and Islamic worlds, days after more than 100 people were massacred in Syria’s […]
NK denounces S. Korea’s attempt to expel pro-NK lawmakers
North Korea has condemned Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party for seeking to strip two alleged pro-North Korean lawmakers of their parliamentary seats. “The madcap smear campaign … is nothing but a ‘witch hunt’ of modern version and sordid fascist politically-motivated terrorism,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in an English-language statement carried […]