The Asia News Network, an alliance of 21 media organizations in 18 countries, has elected Star Group Chief Editor Wong Chun Wai the new chairman. The 51-year-old veteran journalist was endorsed unanimously by the members of the executive board during its annual meeting in Kathmandu last week. The Korea Herald is a member of the world’s most active newspaper alliance, founded in 1998 to provide avenues for cooperation among Asian press. He extended his vision of a more dynamic ANN as Asia plays a

MILAN (AFP) ― Fearless musketeers and seductive water nymphs sashayed down the catwalk at the Gucci show on Wednesday, kicking off Milan Fashion Week with a stunning array of velvet capes and see-through dresses.“This is modern-day romanticism. A dramatic sensuality, a dark glamour. With subtle tones of provocative intellect,” designer Frida Giannini said.And dark it was: models wearing a deep plum lipstick that was almost black stalked down the runway to pulsating beats, shooting looks to kill,

Kim Sun-han, a correspondent with the Yonhap news agency in Vietnam, has received Vietnam’s Medal for Peace and Friendship for his contribution to the deepening of the friendship between Korea and Vietnam.At a ceremony in Hanoi on Wednesday, Vu Xuan Hong, chairman of the Vietnam Union Friendship Organizations praised Kim’s contributions to promoting friendship, mutual understanding and cooperation between the two countries, Yonhap reported.The Medal for Peace and Friendship is the highest award

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A judge granted a motion Tuesday to dismiss concert promoter AEG Live from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson’s father. City News Service said Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos agreed with AEG attorneys who said Joe Jackson should have joined a separate suit filed by his wife, Katherine. The judge said the law does not favor multiple suits by individual heirs. She said that to allow Joe Jackson’s suit against AEG Live to go forward would “allow the heirs of

LONDON (AP) ― London Fashion Week is winding down ― but not before some of Britain’s brightest young designers showcased the inventiveness, eclectic range and irreverence that the British capital’s fashion scene has to offer.On the final day of womenswear shows at the weeklong style extravaganza, two talented female designers, each with their own distinctive visions of femininity, delivered some of the most covetable clothes seen during the week.Fluid silk-dipped back gowns, fur-trimmed pencil s

NEW YORK (AP) ― Retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who collaborated with his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, on her memoir, is writing a children’s book about a mouse that goes to space.“On my first space shuttle flight, we had 18 mice on board as experiments,’’ Kelly said. “And 17 of them, as soon as we got into zero gravity, stayed latched on to the side of the cage. But one of them seemed comfortable through the whole mission, like he was enjoying it.”His “Mousetronaut: A Partially True

The death of a 55-year-old shoeshiner who regularly donated a portion of his small income to the needy has touched hearts across the nation. Lee Chang-sik died of acute sepsis on Monday after collapsing suddenly, according to The Beautiful Foundation, a non-profit charity group that Lee had donated to for over a decade.  The bootblack in the eastern Seoul district of Seongdong had donated about 10,000 won ($9) ― 1 percent of his monthly income ― for the last 11 years since 2001. He also gave spa

Michael Whan, commissioner of the LPGA Tour, is a well-traveled man. As the chief of the world’s longest-running women’s professional sports body, he said he’s been to 17 countries in the past 12 months.South Korea, where he made a brief stop earlier this week to meet with a new tour sponsor, was also on his itinerary. He had flown in from Thailand, the LPGA Tour’s previous stop. When he sat down for an interview with Yonhap News Agency Monday, Whan was on his way out to Singapore, the tour’s ne

Seo Man-sul, chairman of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chongryon in Korea, died of a chronic illness at his home in Tokyo on Monday. He was 84. Seo joined the association, one of the two main organizations of Korean residents in Japan, in 1955. He moved from Korea to Japan in 1941. In the association, he had held major posts in the group from director to the second chairman.The association has strong ties to North Korea and shares its official state ideology.  Se

Lee Jung-myung, chairman of Emerson Pacific Group, a golf course and resort company, has been appointed as president of Korea Juvenile Protection Association, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday. The 69-year-old Lee has been active in the field of teenager safety and well-being. He has held a variety of positions including president of the Daejeon council of the crime prevention committee under the justice ministry, chairman of Haesung School, and head of the National Center of Youth Action and Sc