Deoksu Palace art museum reopens with exhibition of works by key modern painter Lee In-sungThe reopening of the National Museum of Contemporary Art branch at Deoksu Palace last week after three-months of renovations is being marked with a rare exhibition on Korean modern art. The exhibition of works by one of the key modern artists in Korea, Lee In-sung, celebrates the centennial of Lee’s birth, shedding new light on Lee’s short life during the Japanese colonial era. Some 75 paintings and 200 hi

In the plains of central Kansas, tornadoes are so unremarkable that guests barely flinched as a barrel-racing bride wed her bull-riding groom with a twister dropping from the sky in the distance.(YouTube)Caleb and Candra Pence's wedding last Saturday is generating the kind of buzz usually reserved for celebrity nuptials. The video of the service has gone viral, garnering more than 70,000 views on

An unusual love story of a man who fell for a mannequin was introduced via a YouTube video clip.(YouTube)Duaveed Hakhainhaguadole met the mannequin “Clara” at an adult store in Los Angeles and married her with the help of Internet DJ “Psycho Mike.”Hakhainhaguadole said his newfound love was perfect -- no arguing, no screaming, and no complaining. When asked if Clara was the love of his life Hakhai

Belgian-born professor says Jogye Order’s rigid  stance has left internal conflicts unresolvedFor Sem Vermeersch, associate professor of religious studies at Seoul National University, this year means a lot. The Belgian scholar, one of the leading academics in Korean studies, has been studying ancient Korean Buddhism for 20 years, particularly during the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392) which was strongly attached to the political system of the time. Speaking with The Korea Herald at his office at Kyuj

When major sports brands opened registration for their marathon events earlier this month, some saw their websites crash as thousands of people tried to register online at once. New Balance increased the number of participants for its 2012 New Race, scheduled for June 10, from 5,000 last year to 15,000 this year in response to the growing popularity of marathons in the country. When this week’s nike Women’s 7K Race opened registration last month, its 7,000 places were quickly filled, closing reg

There’s a museum with something for everyone in Victoria, B.C., from evocative exhibits of native history to tea and croquet on the lawn of a 19th-century home-turned-museum.Here’s a sampling:Royal BC MuseumThis don’t-miss museum, the city’s biggest, has a world-class First Nations gallery (with ceremonial masks, totem poles and more artifacts of British Columbia’s native groups); natural-history galleries with lush sea and forest dioramas; and a child-pleasing reconstruction of a 19th-century t

EL ORIENTE, Ecuador ― This is one rain forest the world has saved.After donors around the globe pledged $116 million by the December 2011 deadline to prevent oil drilling in the biologically fragile Yasuni National Park, the Ecuadorian government agreed to leave it alone for now.There will be no roads, drilling or pipelines this year.Instead, tourists can continue to witness the damp glory of the region’s tangled forests and the riotous color of even the smallest frog and butterfly.“Everyone on

Canada, By Richard Ford (Ecco)Some parents screw their kids up incrementally. Bev and Neeva Parsons manage to cram a life’s worth of trauma into a matter of days during the summer of 1960.The couple’s misadventures are told by their son Dell in “Canada,” Richard Ford’s 10th book.The hapless father, Bev (“He never conceded that Beverly was a woman’s name in most people’s minds”), and the bright but empathy-bereft Neeva dominate the first half of a riveting tale of lost innocence.The saga begins w

Calico Joe, By John Grisham (Doubleday)John Grisham is to literature what Cheerios are to a rushed breakfast, something you buy in bulk and consume without too much thought. Honestly, I’m relieved when a new Grisham book doesn’t weigh more than I do.Yet his newest work, “Calico Joe,” is as slender as a Dodgers shortstop. Coming in at under 200 pages, it is a breezy little baseball novel that will probably appeal to many men the way Nicholas Sparks’ stories appeal to that other sex.Strangely, con

(Asia Literary Review) By Michael Breen et alAsia Literary Review, an English-language quarterly journal distributed globally, has dedicated its Spring 2012 issue to Korean literature.“Koreans are rightly proud of their unique culture and their literary heritage; they respect and appreciate their writers and poets,” wrote Ilyas Khan, the journal’s publisher.“And if any place could be described as a country of readers, it would be South Korea. Their writers, however, have yet to be discovered by