From Thursday, police officers can now restrain domestic abuse offenders temporarily on the spot without referring the case to the prosecution. The National Police Agency said that under a special law on domestic violence, which took effect Thursday, officers will have the authority to intervene in family violence. In case of an emergency, police officers will be able to seclude the attacker from the victim by ordering a 100-meter restraining order, keeping them from the residence and prohibitin

Seoul City will confer honorary citizen certificates to 16 people from a dozen countries for their contribution in developing the capital and promoting Korea’s culture around the world, officials said Thursday.Among the beneficiaries is Benjamin Hughes, 46, an international arbitrations expert and Christopher Vaia, 65, a soldier-turned-“Bridgebuilder.”A retired Sergeant Major for the U.S. Forces Korea, Vaia has been an important figure in bridging the gap between the U.S. and Korean communities

The International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom), given to local communities to recognize the best management of environment, kicked off its five-day event at Lotte Hotel in the Seoul district of Songpa, Thursday.It is the first time for Songpa to host the event in Korea since the award was launched in 1997 in partnership with the U.N. Environment Program.About 80 countries selected from 330 applicants will compete for the award this year and share their environment practices with othe

Park expected to halt civil engineering projectsSigning off on a plan to finance free lunches for all elementary school students starting next month was the first thing new Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon did as he began his job Thursday.With his signing, the free school meal program, currently offered to first through fourth graders, will be extended to fifth and sixth graders, two months after ex-mayor Oh Se-hoon resigned over his failure to thwart the free meal expansion plan pushed by the oppositi

The chief of police here is facing heated opposition from human rights organizations and even some officers after telling front line police to use their firearms more often. This will be the third time that the National Police Agency Commissioner-General Cho Hyun-oh has ordered his officers to more readily use their firearms after officers simply watched a massive gang fight unfold. “Police will wage war against organized gangsters by the end of this year,” said Cho.“I will allow all kinds of eq

Samsung Group revamped its healthcare unit Wednesday by splitting Samsung Medical Center into three independent hospitals for the sake of management efficiency, officials said.Currently, Samsung Medical Center includes Samsung Seoul Hospital in Ilwon-dong in southern Seoul, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in northern Seoul and Samsung Changwon Hospital in South Gyeongsang Province. The group headquarters appointed Yoon Soon-bong, former CEO of the group’s petrochemical unit, as president of Samsung Seo

Konkuk University opened an animal stem cell research institute Wednesday to treat rare or hard-to-cure animal diseases.Professor Jung Pyung-hyun of the school’s veterinary department said the Animal Stem Cell Center will treat animals by using stem cells extracted from fat tissue.The center said it has enhanced efficiency because it takes less than three hours for veterinary surgeons to extract stem cells from fat tissue, refine them and use them for treatment. Fat cells contain 1,000 times mor

Police are investigating what and who caused the state election watchdog’s website to crash for about two hours on Wednesday morning, keeping in mind the possibility of a so-called “distributed-denial-of-service” attack, officials said.The website of the National Election Commission crashed between 6:15 a.m. and 8:50 a.m. when many voters visited it to locate polling stations where they could cast their ballots for the by-elections for Seoul mayor.Investigators suspect that the website crashed d

The Education Ministry has authorized five new online universities, which are expected to open next year, officials said Wednesday. Konyang University in South Chungcheong Province has been approved by the ministry to provide undergraduate online courses, which will be available next March. For graduate courses, four universities, Daegu, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Sejong and Hanyang, were given permission to open special purpose online graduate schools.The Konyang online university wi

The chief of police here is facing heated opposition from human rights organizations and even some officers after telling front line police to use their firearms more often. This will be the third time that the National Police Agency Commissioner-General Cho Hyun-oh has ordered his officers to more readily use their firearms after officers simply watched a massive gang fight unfold. “Police will wage war against organized gangsters by the end of this year,” said Cho.“I will allow all kinds of eq

The government and businesses have stepped up efforts to create job opportunities for vocational high school students in a country where too many college graduates compete for too few jobs. The education, labor and economy ministries signed a memorandum of understanding Monday with five major business organizations including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Federation of Korean Industries and Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business to make efforts to provide more job opportu

Rival parties are pushing to abolish the statute of limitations for those charged with sexual assault against disabled people or children under 13.The bill review subcommittee of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee examined and passed the so-called “Dogani” bill regarding sexual assault on children and the disabled. The bill is now awaiting approval by the National Assembly. Dogani is the title of a film based on the true story of teachers who committed sex crimes against

The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday advised the administration to abolish police conscription and hire professional police officers to replace draftees. It also advised the Ministry of National Defense to cooperate with the National Police Agency in replacing personnel. The panel recommended the Ministry of Public Administration and Security increase recruitment of police officers and that the Ministry of Strategy and Finance allocate sufficient funds for it.According to the independ