City seeks to better cater to foreign visitors with tour product certification

Leading surgeon Shim talks about keeping cancer under control, pain-free

The peritoneum is a membrane that covers various organs in the abdomen. Peritonitis is an inflammation of this structure.Peritonitis can be divided into acute and chronic types depending on the progress, or as infective and non-infective depending on the cause.Acute peritonitis is associated with abdominal pain, whereas in chronic peritonitis the pain may actually decrease in severity. Other symptoms such as abdominal distention and nausea can also develop.Causes of acute peritonitis include per

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― No public memorial marks the former Shanghai internment camp made famous by J.G. Ballard’s novel “Empire of the Sun,” where more than 1,800 foreigners were held by the Japanese during World War II.Ballard’s fictionalized version of his experiences in the Lunghwa camp was published 30 years ago, followed in 1987 by the Steven Spielberg film starring a young Christian Bale as Jim Graham, a boy who comes of age on his own in the facility.The site is now an elite government-run scho

It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since the publication of Nancy Horan’s best-selling debut, “Loving Frank,” a riveting tale centered on Frank Lloyd Wright’s lover and muse, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, that remains vividly fresh in my memory.In her new novel, “Under the Wide and Starry Sky,” she once again takes a deep, discerning dive into a famous man’s life by focusing on a significant love interest. Once again, I was enthralled.Horan has been credited with inventing this popular subgenre

Un-Remarried WidowBy Artis Henderson (Simon & Schuster)There are stories of war we are used to seeing: The soldier as action hero or the wounded warrior returning home. Then there are the war stories that are not so familiar, of the families left behind.Artis Henderson’s “Un-Remarried Widow” is one such story, an exquisitely sensitive portrait of a new bride whose marriage is cut short when her husband is killed in the Iraq War.The book’s title refers to the characteristically dry, bureaucratic

RipperBy Isabel Allende(Harper)Chilean author Isabel Allende’s magical realism approach has earned her lyrical novels such as “The House of the Spirits” and “Of Love and Shadows” critical acclaim and solid spots on best-sellers lists.But Allende’s style fails her in her first crime novel. “Ripper” succumbs to an overwrought plot, weak characters and uninteresting details that derail the story.Ripper is an online community of amateur sleuths around the world united to solve a series of bizarre ki

You may wish, from time to time, that you could feel like a teenager again. “Teenage knees?” you think. “Sign me up!” But then you run into someone like Cressida Mayfield. The delicate heart of Joyce Carol Oates’ moody, marvelous new novel, “Carthage,” 19-year-old Cressida reminds you that those teenage knees come at a price: You’d have to suffer through all those teenage emotions again to get them.Cressida can be cruel. She’ll snip threads on her older sister Juliet’s cashmere sweater, “shiveri

The headquarters of the Sunfull Movement, which campaigns for positive online comments, launched a Winter Olympic cyber cheering squad for Korea and China with People.cn, the online portal of the People’s Daily, China’s state-run newspaper, in Seoul on Thursday.Korean members of the “Sochi Winter Olympics Korea-China cyber cheering squad” will support the Chinese team during the Winter Olympics with posts on the campaign’s website. Likewise, Chinese members will support South Korea.The Korean we

More than 50 percent of U.S. people have used their mobile device to share or receive intimate or sexual text messages, emails or photos from someone, according to security software firm McAfee.McAfee released a new study on Tuesday titled “Love, Relationships, and Technology” gathering data from 1,500 U.S. consumers.While 77 percent of sexters send their racy content to their significant others, 16 percent send it to complete strangers.Eighteen-to 24-year-olds with smartphones are most keen on

When it comes to booze, Koreans know what they are dealing with. Just as the term “let’s have a meal” is often interchangeable with arranging a meeting, “let’s go for a drink” is roughly equivalent to socializing. In the past, social meetings with alcohol had involved participants getting heavily drunk. This brought forth the birth of poktanju, or the bomb-drink, which refers to a cocktail of beer and liquors such as whiskey.As its name suggests, its main goal is to bombard the drinker with a he

ROME (AFP) ― A virtually unknown novel by Charlie Chaplin ― the only book the silent film comic ever wrote ― is being made public for the first time.“Footlights,” which will be unveiled in London later Tuesday, was written by Chaplin in 1948 and later transformed into his film “Limelight,” in which a washed-out clown saves a dancer from suicide.The book is being published in English by the Cineteca di Bologna, an Italian film restoration institute which has been working with Chaplin biographer D

WASHINGTON (AP) ― When art historians saw Paris fall to the Nazis in World War II, they immediately realized Europe’s vast monuments, art, cathedrals and architecture were at risk and began mobilizing to protect such treasures. In Washington, the newly opened National Gallery of Art became the U.S. museum world’s epicenter for lobbying President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Allied forces in 1941 to prevent the destruction of Europe’s monuments. Their efforts would create a corps of U.S. and Bri

AUSTIN, Texas ― Even though her mother is from South Korea, Abigail Lunde didn’t really like kimchi growing up.“My mom would put a little bowl of water next to my plate and wash it off for me,” says Abigail Lunde, now 28, of the fermented side dish that almost every Korean (well, 95 percent, according to a recent survey) eats at least once a day. “My mom wanted me to be Americanized,” Lunde says. “We would go back (to South Korea) every few years to visit, but I didn’t understand the culture. I

MANILA (AFP) ― For some of the Philippines’ most powerful clergymen, stepping off the pulpit and into cyberspace felt impossibly daunting until they took their first “selfies” and posted them on Facebook. Their initial forays into the brave new virtual world took place in a groundbreaking class for 50 of the Philippines’ top bishops and monsignors in Manila earlier last month, part of the Catholic Church’s strategy to remain relevant in the digital age.Sean-Patrick Lovett, a program director wit