A top governor at a prestigious British school stepped down after it was revealed that she had worked as an escort under a fake name, British media reported Sunday.According to the Sun, the 48-year-old held a post as the chief governor at a secondary school in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, while secretly working as an escort via an erotic website in her free time.She used a false identity and posted revealing photos -- with blurred faces to hide her identity -- on the Internet and offered what s

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for concentrated efforts to build up the country's light industrial sector that has direct bearing on the lives of everyday people, state media reported Tuesday.The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) monitored in Seoul said Kim stressed the importance of the sector in a speech given at a national light industry gathering held in Pyongyang.The official news wire service said the leader made clear that light industry, along with agriculture, is critical for tr

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named Kang Kyung-wha, a former South Korean diplomat, as deputy head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ban's office announced Monday. Kang will replace Catherine Bragg of Canada as assistant secretary general for humanitarian affairs and deputy emergency relief coordinator, it added.Kang has served as the deputy U.N. high commissioner for human rights since January 2007.Prior to joining the U.N., she worked as chief

B-52s participating in the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military drills are meant to demonstrate a strong alliance capability in the face of North Korean threats, the Pentagon said Monday."This mission highlights the extended deterrence and conventional capabilities of the B-52 Stratofortress while participating in exercises such as Foal Eagle," Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.Foal Eagle, an annual joint exercise, began on March 1 for a two-month run. South Korea and the U.S. a

A plan to seize up to 10 percent of savings accounts in Cyprus to help pay for a (euro) 15.8 billion ($20.4 billion) financial bailout was met with fury Monday, and the government shut down banks until later this week while lawmakers wrangled over how to keep the island nation from bankruptcy.Though the euro and stock prices of European banks fell, global financial markets largely remained calm, and there was little sense that bank account holders elsewhere across the continent faced similar ris

한국에 대한 혐오감을 유포시키는 혐한(嫌韓)운동에 반대하는 시위대가 일본 도쿄에 등장했다.17일 오후 도쿄 신오쿠보의 한인타운에서는 혐한 시위에 반대하는 사람들의 ‘맞불 시위’가 진행됐다. 100여명으로 구성된 이들은 ‘재일특권을 허용하지 않는 시민의 모임’ 등에 소속된 혐한 시위대 수백명이 거리를 행진하자 혐한 활동을 그만두라는 구호를 외쳤다. ‘친한’ 시위대는 “친하게 지내요” “차별 반대” 등의 글귀가 적힌 피켓을 들기도 했다. 이들 두 시위대 사이에 몸싸움이 벌어지면서 경찰이 진압에 나서기도 했다.최근 일본에서는 한국인을 주된 표적으로 삼는 배외주의 흐름에 반대하는 움직임이 가시화되고 있다. 지난 14일에는 아리타 요시후 민주당 의원과 히라야마 마코토 녹색바람당 의원 등의 주최로 참의원 의원회관에서 ‘배외주의•인종모멸 시위에 항의하는 국회 집회’가 열리기도 했다. <관련 영문 기사>Japanese step up against anti-Korea demonstrations　As

Two members of a celebrated local high school football team were found guilty Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl, and Ohio's attorney general warned the case isn't over, saying he is investigating whether coaches, parents and other students broke the law, too.Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that has rocked this Midwestern U.S. city of 18,000 and led to allegations of a cover-up to protect the Steubenville High team,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed on Sunday a hard-line former military chief as the country's new defense minister.Moshe Yaalon, a former army commando, has said Iran's suspect nuclear program is Israel's top security concern, though he has been vague about whether Israel might carry out a military strike on Iran. He also has voiced skepticism about the chances for reaching peace with the Palestinians.Yaalon, widely known by his nickname “Bogie,” was Israel's military chief fr

Cyprus' president said Sunday that he is trying to amend a key provision of an unpopular eurozone bailout plan that would tax deposits in the country's banks to reduce its effect on small savers. But in a nationally televised speech, President Nicos Anastasiades also urged lawmakers to approve the tax in a vote Monday, saying it is essential to save the country from bankruptcy.About 25 lawmakers from the communist-rooted AKEL party, the socialist EDEK and the Greens said they won't vote for the

South Korea's producer prices grew at a faster pace in February than the previous month as oil prices picked up and the local currency depreciated to the dollar, the central bank said Monday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, grew 0.7 percent in February from the previous month, after rising 0.2 percent on-month in January, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The data marked the fastest gain since a 0.7 percent on-month gain in February 2012.Last month, prices o

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. sold 52,000 vehicles in the United States in February, up 2 percent from a year ago, industry data showed Monday. The data showed that Hyundai's market share in the U.S. remained unchanged at 4.4 percent.Hyundai's smaller sister company, Kia Motors Corp., sold 41,500 units in the U.S., down 8 percent from a year ago. Its market share stood at 3.5 percent last month, down 0.44 percentage points from a year earlier.Hyundai and Kia ranked seventh in ter

North Korea's recent military threats are worrisome especially as the "stability" of North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un remains uncertain, a senior U.S. lawmaker said Sunday.Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said North Korea has the capability to carry out its verbal threats."They certainly have a ballistic missile that can reach U.S. shores," he said, appearing on a CNN program. The Michigan republican did not specify whether he meant the U.S. mainland or c