The annual Busan International Advertising Festival, also known as AD Stars, kicks off Friday at BEXCO with world-renowned creative directors attending.Under the theme of “Digital Humanism,” the three-day festival will offer industry experts a chance to share their ideas on marketing and creativity in the digital era.The list of celebrities in the global advertising industry who are participating in the festival includes Coca-Cola vice president Jonathan Mildenhall, Cheil Worldwide executive dir

Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, the conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said in a television interview that it is “really rare” for women to become pregnant when they are raped.Akin, a six-term congressman running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, was asked in an interview that aired Sunday on St. Louis television station KTVI if there were any circumstances in which he would support a woman's decision to have an abortion.Akin, who has said he's Missouri's most conserv

The “Chinese cultural invasion” has become a global phenomenon. Record-breaking sums are being splashed on Chinese art pieces at international auctions and exhibitions of works by Chinese “enfants terribles” are held at galleries around the world. In Korea some of the trendiest Chinese artists have become the new darlings of collectors, replacing Andy Warhol or Lee U-fan.At the center of the frenzy for Chinese contemporary art is Zhang Xiaogang. Zhang is now considered among the most sensational

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) ― A music video by pop singer Beyonce helped inspire one billion messages for World Humanitarian Day on Sunday, which the United Nations said was a social media record.The singer recorded the music video, “I Was Here,” for the U.N. campaign to generate one billion messages encouraging people to do a good deed.“The World Humanitarian Day 2012 campaign has made social media history by sharing more than one billion messages of hope,” the U.N. said in a statement.The U.N. launch

Men who drink tend to stem their alcohol use once they marry, while women tend to increase their drinking after marriage, U.S. researchers found. Corinne Reczek of the University of Cincinnati, Tetyana Pudrovska of Pennsylvania State University, Deborah Carr of Rutgers University and Debra Umberson of the University of Texas at Austin found married men reported consuming the lowest number of drinks compared with single, divorced and widowed men.The researchers analyzed survey data from the Wisco

A 63-year-old former engineer may not fit the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. But Jinichi Kawakami is reputedly Japan's last ninja.In the public mind, this is the typical image of a ninja. (123rf)As the 21st head of the Ban clan, a line of ninjas that can trace its history back some 500 years, Kawakami is considered by some to be t

This is the sixth and last in a series of articles to mark the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Korea and China. ― Ed.The term “hallyu” was first coined in the late 1990s by Chinese journalists to describe Chinese people’s craze over Korean TV dramas. Hallyu, meaning Korean Wave, has continued for more than ten years and has sparked China’s interest in other Korean cultural content and business industries such as Korean products, food, tourism, medical services and even the Kore

The World Taekwondo Peace Corps said Sunday that it has named Kim Ki-woong, chief executive of The Korea Economic Daily Media Group, as its second president. Kim has served as CEO of the business news media group since March last year, after working as managing editor of the Korea Economic Daily and then president of Korea Economic TV.His three-year term as head of the taekwondo peace corps will begin on Sept. 4. The inauguration ceremony will be held in the Korea Economic Daily building in Seou

Miss China won the coveted title of Miss World on Saturday, triumphing on home soil during a glitzy final held in a mining city on the edge of the Gobi desert. The mostly Chinese audience erupted in cheers, and fireworks lit up the sky, when it was announced that the home candidate, Yu Wenxia, had been awarded the coveted title.