Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon had no formal affiliation with a political party and no experience in running for public office. The lawyer-turned-activist was an underdog when he went into the mayoral race against a two-term legislator from the ruling party on Oct. 26. But he won with a comfortable lead, thanks in a large part to new, vibrant and youthful social networking services (SNS).The mayor’s case was yet another example of, and a catalyst for, making full use of Twitter, Facebook and the like

LAGOS (AP) ― Protesters furious over spiraling gas prices set fires on an expressway Tuesday and at least one person was killed in the violent unrest after Nigeria’s government did away with a subsidy program that had kept fuel costs down for more than two decades.One union leader described the federal government’s hugely unpopular move as “immoral and politically suicidal,” and urged Nigerians to resist “with everything they have.” But Tuesday’s protest showed that, once unleashed, the pent-up

MADRID (AFP) ― Spanish retailers are offering deep discounts in their post-Christmas sales to try to get cash-strapped shoppers to open their wallets as a sharp economic downturn drags painfully on.Shoppers packed into an outlet of Spanish clothing store Blanco in central Madrid on Monday, the first day of the official sales period, drawn by a 50 percent discount on all items in its winter collection.“It is hard to resist, you can buy much more clothes for the same amount of money if you wait un

The brightly colored box dropped with a thud out of the mailbag. “Kiwi Crate,” read the label. We peeked inside, intrigued. Tucked beneath layers of tissue paper was a bevy of treasures sure to spark a little someone’s imagination. There were the makings of pinwheels and stained-glass windows. Even a canvas tote, ready for tie-dye. Along with this came not an instruction sheet, but rather something called an “inspiration sheet.”“We don’t want it to be too prescriptive. We give handrails in case