When there are insufficient tears to moisten the eyes for comfort, symptoms such as stinging pain, foreign body sensation, burning and production of mucus can occur. Some patients say that they feel as though they do not have enough tears. The discomfort can vary from person to person. Such discomfort worsens with prolonged reading or exposure to wind or cigarette smoke. These symptoms associated with tears, namely with the insufficiency of tears or its components, signify a condition called sch

Angelina Jolie’s choice to undergo a double mastectomy has sparked a rise in women wanting to have the same surgical procedure, believing that it can reduce the risk of breast cancer. The breast removal surgery, however, is not a key solution to prevent the disease even for those who carry the same genes as the Hollywood star, a doctor here said.Moon Byeong-in, head of the Cancer Center for Women at Ewha Womans University Medical Center, said the chances of getting breast cancer for women who ar

A festival aimed to promote the cultural diversity of 10 Southeast Asian countries is to be held in Konkuk University’s Millennium Hall in Seoul on Saturday.Hosted by the ASEAN-Korea Center, the fifth “Bravo! ASEAN in Korea” will feature traditional and modern music performances by those from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Out of 42 teams that vied for spots in preliminary sessions held in Hongdae in Seoul and Ansan in Gyeonggi Province, 10 teams were selected to

A Korean sculptor who made “The Greeting Man” in Montevideo, Uruguay has reproduced the art work in a village located in Yanggu, Gangwon Province.Yoo Young-ho, 48, will unveil a copy of the six-meter sculpture in front of the Yanggu Unification Hall near the Demilitarized Zone on Saturday, the office of Haeanmyeon in Yanggu said.He installed “The Greeting Man” on Oct. 25, 2012 in the capital of Urugugay. He donated it to the Latin American country as part of his project to link cultures and peop

LONDON (AFP) ― Britain’s baby Prince George was christened in a private ceremony on Wednesday, with his proud parents Prince William and Catherine giving the world a rare glimpse of the chubby three-month-old boy.Wearing a frilly cream lace gown, the third in line to the throne was carried into the Chapel Royal of St James’s palace by his father, his mother Kate close by, elegant in a cream Alexander McQueen outfit.Queen Elizabeth II and the couple’s parents and siblings, including William’s you

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg set a new record for corporate compensation in 2012 with a package worth more than $2.278 billion, according to a survey by a corporate governance firm.The report by GMI Ratings showed Zuckerberg’s salary of $503,000 and bonus of $266,000 were eclipsed by stock options worth some $2.27 billion.This was the first year the survey found any chief executive collected more than $1 billion, according to the GMI report released Tuesday.One other CEO’s c

Over 5,000 participants to discuss peace on Korean Peninsula, diversity and love

THE HAGUE (AFP) ― A Facebook petition supporting a Dutch Christmas character called “Black Pete” on Wednesday hit a million ‘likes,’ revealing the liberal nation’s attachment to a beloved figure the U.N. has warned may be racist. Anger over the issue has swept the Netherlands after a U.N. human rights body said it was assessing whether “Zwarte Piet,” who accompanies Saint Nicholas during a traditional children’s festival before Christmas, is racist.The character, who arrives on a gift-filled boa

It’s been 17 years since “Bridget Jones’s Diary” first hit the scene, turning freelance journalist Helen Fielding into a best-selling author and screenwriter. Her latest installment, “Mad About the Boy,” follows Bridget, now 51, as she copes with the loss of her beloved Mark Darcy while trying to raise their children. We talked with Fielding over the phone about how it feels to bring Bridget back into the public eye (while taking lots of heat from those Colin Firth fans!).The following is an edi

You may think writing poetry is all about gazing at the stars in the sky and the bluebells in the fields, then being struck by divine inspiration. But if you ask Billy Collins, he’ll tell you the process is more like a Wallace and Gromit cartoon.“There’s a great one where the dog is on top of a locomotive,” says the two-term U.S. poet laureate. “He’s got a box full of track, and he’s frenetically laying down track in front of the train. That’s a good metaphor for writing a poem.”Collins, 72, has

The Daylight GateBy Jeanette Winterson(Grove) Jeanette Winterson’s new novel is a strange and spare piece of horror writing about witch trials that arrives on these shores just in time for Halloween.“The Daylight Gate” is based on a real-life story of the Pendle Witches, men and women charged in 1612 with using their alleged craft to murder innocents in Lancashire in northwest England. Winterson re-creates the turbulent times that fed the anti-witch hysteria. King James, obsessed with the idea o