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East Asia
South Koreans elect first female President
South Koreans have elected their first Female President Park Geun-hye who ran for the presidency from the ruling Saenuri Party. Park won approximately 52% of the votes and ended the race by edging her main opponent from the main opposition Democratic United Party Moon Jae-In. Korean media shot Park’s supporters waiting for her…
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Northeast Asia in turbulence
Incoming 3 leaders share responsibility for peace Leadership changes in the three major countries in Northeast Asia wrapped up last week with the election of Park Geun-hye as South Korea’s first woman president. China’s Xi Jinping took over the fifth-generation leadership and will become the president of the world’s most…
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West Asia
Arab Spring comes to Kuwait
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait ― Little more than a postage stamp in the Persian Gulf, Kuwait sits in a strategic position and offers a liberal model for other Gulf states. But it faces increasing internal political strife. Although an Islamic monarchy, Kuwait has the Gulf’s oldest elected parliament, most free media,…
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East Asia
Seoul to purchase 4 Global Hawks from US
Korea will purchase four Global Hawk surveillance drones from the United States in a step toward taking the lead role in intelligence gathering here by 2015, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said Monday. The deal for the RQ-4 Global Hawk, an unmanned aerial vehicle, will be $1.2 billion…
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Society
TM considered best way to avert nuclear threat, terrorism, to create lasting peace
With much media fanfare worldwide, the Mayan calendar came to an end on 21 December 2012, with far-flung predictions of global apocalypse. But most of us are still here, so perhaps the “end of the world” was in fact a new beginning – the end of the world as we…
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Unwed mothers call for Park’s attention
Kim Jung-in (an alias), a public relations officer, knew it would be difficult to raise her one-month-old daughter alone. But determined to try, she ignored family members who pressured her to opt for adoption, just as they had told her to have an abortion. “I was confident I could get…
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East Asia
Sunrise festivals in Korea
With the clock ticking toward 2013, meaning it will be 888 years before digital clocks can display consecutive date numbers in month, day and year order (01/01/01 etc.) many are making the most of Korea’s many sunrise festivals to be held on New Year’s Eve at selected eastern costal locations.…
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East Asia
CNBLUE’s ‘Robot’ ranks No. 2 in Oricon chart
Four-member band CNBlue has climbed to the No. 2 position on the Japanese Oricon Charts with their latest single as of Tuesday. The band’s FNC Entertainment said Tuesday that the single titled “Robot” from their latest EP scaled the charts after selling 24,000 on the day of its release on…
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East Asia
Joseon’s maps used as means of control
Exhibit shows cartographic history of last kingdom In Park Bum-shin’s novel “Gosanja (Man of the Mountain),” Kim Jeong-ho, a cartographer and geographer of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), struggles to make accurate maps despite opposition from the aristocracy. It portrays the cartographer’s difficulties in delivering the exact topographic information as the…
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Culture
The best of times and the worst of hangovers
With the year coming to an end, many workers and young adults are boozing at gatherings with colleagues and friends. They often end up drinking too much, lose control of themselves and end up in embarrassing situations. The morning after such gatherings, people feel so rotten. The dreaded hangover experience…
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