A fresh price war among coffee vendors looms as a domestic franchised shop began to sell its standard product at close to one-fifth the market price last week.Manoffin, owned by popular local pizza franchise Mr. Pizza Corp., offers Hawaiian Kona coffee, one of the most popular brands here, at 790 won ($0.70) per cup. This price is far lower than its peers from Starbucks, Coffee Bean and other bran

(Captured from the Metro)One border collie has proved she is smarter than the average 3-year-old child.According to British daily Metro, Chaser has the broadest “vocabulary“ ever seen in an animal after learning the names of more than 1,000 objects. Chaser was trained intensively for three years to be able to identify 1,022 objects. Not only that, Chaser can also categorize things by function and

People who become euphoric over music unleash dopamine, a brain chemical that also induces the sense of reward that comes from food, psychoactive drugs and money, an unusual study says.   McGill University researchers in Montreal, Canada, recruited eight volunteers aged 19-24 among 217 people who responded to advertisements requesting people who experienced "chills" -- a marker of extreme pleasure

LAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics’ heir apparent Lee Jae-yong on Friday strongly supported his father Lee Kun-hee’s drive for challenge and change. “(Chairman Lee) is someone who is constantly mounts new challenges,” Lee said from Las Vegas where he was attending the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest electronics tradeshow in the world. “Also, the chairman has DNA that makes it unbearable for hi

Koo pledges to create ‘tougher work culture’LAS VEGAS ― Koo Bon-joon’s distress over his new charge, LG Electronics, was palpable throughout the brisk speech he delivered on the sidelines of the world’s largest electronics fair. “Our basics have been significantly undermined,” Koo, vice chairman of the company, said at a briefing to the Korean press while attending the Consumer Electronics Show. R

InterContinental Hotel Group has partnered with AMJ Developments to open the first fully managed international hotel Holiday Inn Gwangju. The 205-room hotel started operations in December.Gwangju, the capital city of South Jeolla Province, attracts many visitors through its cultural events, 26 golf courses and the Korean Formula One track. Holiday Inn Gwangju is ideally placed to provide accommoda

The Mahler craze started in 2010 when Korean classical concert-goers scrambled to get tickets to Gustav Mahler’s symphonies at the Seoul Arts Center. Last year, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Chung Myung-whun began staging the Austrian composer’s all-symphonic works to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth.Coming into 2011, Mahler fever is sweeping the nation even faster than las

National team opens Asian Cup campaign against BahrainSouth Korea kicks off its Asian Cup campaign against Bahrain in the early hours of Tuesday morning (1:15 KST) local time. It will be a long night for fans in Seoul and elsewhere who stay up to watch the Group C match beamed from the Qatari capital of Doha but that is nothing to the 51 years that have passed since the nation was last crowned con

The main opposition Democratic Party has vowed to grill the nominee for Board of Audit and Inspection chairman over his “unusually rapid” accumulation of wealth at the parliamentary confirmation hearing slated for Jan. 19-20. DP lawmakers are also urging President Lee Myung-bak to withdraw the nomination of former prosecutor Chung Tong-ki for the position. Their indignant stance, taken on Sunday,

Korea confirmed three new cases of bird flu on Sunday as the outbreak that began last month further hits farmers who are also battling the nation’s worst-ever outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.The Agriculture Ministry confirmed three new cases of the highly contagious virus at duck farms in the southwestern county of Yeongam, bringing the total number of cases to seven since Dec. 31.At least 396,

The prosecution is planning to summon two former top police officials early this week as part of its probe into an escalating bribery scandal regarding construction site catering contracts, sources said Sunday.The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office will question former National Police Agency chief Kang Hee-rak as early as Monday on suspicion of receiving some 100 million won ($88,840) in k

Working with high-speed data network may be key to success in the tablet spaceLAS VEGAS (AP) ― Big tablets and small tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure are at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot on the horizon.It’s impossible to walk the floor at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show witho

Bernanke: 4-5 years to reach normal unemployment; $600b support program still neededWASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sketched a more optimistic view of the economy Friday but said the Fed’s $600 billion bond-buying program is needed because unemployment will likely stay elevated for up to five more years.Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee that there’s rising evidence