The Korea Herald

'X’ now a gender option in Australian passports

World NewsSept 15, 2011

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) _ Australian passports will now have three gender options: male, female and indeterminate. The change is designed to remove discrimination against transgender people.The government said Thursday that transgender people and those of ambiguous sex will be able to list their ge
Samsung develops low-power DRAM chips for servers

TechnologySept 15, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chipmaker, said Thursday that it has developed a new low-powered dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips based on the 30-nanometer class technology. The 16-gigabyte, DDR3 Registered Dual Inline Memory Module (RDIMM) fo
S. Korea closely watches currency market situations: finance ministry

Sept 15, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is closely watching currency market conditions as volatility increases amid growing concerns over fiscal woes in Europe, a senior finance ministry official said Thursday. "In any direction, excessive fluctuations in the currency exchange rates are not desirabl
Military to assign more women to combat duties

DefenseSept 15, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- The military will place female officers in more combat duties that have so far been closed to them, a senior official said Thursday.Boo Jae-won, head of the personnel planning bureau at the defense ministry, said 12 combat branches will be open to female soldiers from 201
S. Korea proposes talks with Japan over wartime sex slaves

PoliticsSept 15, 2011

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday proposed holding talks with Japan to discuss the issue of Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, an issue that has long been one of the thorns in relations between the two nations.The Foreign Ministry called in Nobukatsu Ka
Jackie Kennedy tapes show tender side -- and acid

PeopleSept 15, 2011

(AFP) -- Hours of newly released interviews made with Jackie Kennedy soon after JFK‘s assassination show both the tenderness of the most iconic of US first ladies -- and her acid side.The unprecedented trove of interviews recorded by historian Arthur Schlesinger in 1964, four months after John F. Ke
Rabbit that woke owner of burning house dies

World NewsSept 15, 2011

KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — Fire officials in Alaska say a pet rabbit woke its owner when the house was on fire, allowing the woman to get herself and her daughter safely out of the burning building. But the rabbit ended up dying from smoke inhalation.The woman was awakened early Tuesday by the r
Former tax agency chief cleared of bribery charges

Social affairsSept 15, 2011

A former chief of the national tax agency was cleared on Friday of charges that he offered an expensive painting to his boss while he tried to secure the top post before taking the helm.The Seoul Central District Court found former National Tax Service chief Han Sang-yool not guilty of bribing Jeon
Laughter really is the best medicine

ScienceSept 15, 2011

PARIS (AFP) - A rattling good laugh with friends will help you deal with pain thanks to opiate-like chemicals that flood the brain, according to a British study released on Wednesday.Researchers carried out lab experiments in which volunteers watched either comedy clips from "Mr Bean" or "Friends,"
FBI hunt hackers over Scarlett Johansson nude photos

FilmSept 15, 2011

The FBI is probing allegations that a number of Hollywood celebrities have been hacked, after semi-naked pictures of Scarlett Johansson leaked onto the Internet, the agency said Wednesday.The photos, apparently taken by the actress herself, were published on gossip websites, while there were reports
Citibank Korea pays highest salary among lenders

Sept 15, 2011

Citibank Korea Inc. paid the highest salary among major banks in the country in the first half of this year, industry data showed Thursday. The South Korean unit of the U.S.-based Citigroup Inc. paid an average of 6.17 million won (US$5,593) a month to its workers in January-June period, according t
Rockets fall near S. Korean embassy in Afghanistan

InternationalSept 15, 2011

Several rockets fell near the South Korean embassy in Afghanistan this week, but no casualties were reported, a foreign ministry official said Thursday.Three or four rounds of rocket-propelled grenades landed close to the embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, but they did not appear to be
U.S. spy plane to begin flights near DMZ soon: report

DefenseSept 15, 2011

The U.S. is poised to start flying a spy plane near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to acquire further intelligence on North Korea, a report said.In an article dated Monday, the Stars and Stripes, a U.S. military newspaper, quoted U.S. Air Force officials as saying the U.S. was negotiating with South K
Computer glitch grounds flights at Incheon airport

IndustrySept 15, 2011

More than a dozen flights were temporarily delayed Wednesday due to a glitch in the computer system of the air traffic center at Incheon International Airport, the government said Thursday.No accidents or casualties were reported, but it resulted in several flight delays, according to the Ministry o
French bank downgrades to have 'limited' impact on Korean financial firms: watchdog

Sept 14, 2011

The credit downgrades of two major French banks will have a "limited" impact on the health of South Korean financial companies as their exposure to those lenders remain quite small, Seoul's financial watchdog said Wednesday.Earlier, Moody's Investors Service, one of the world's major credit appraise