Korea

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon called for expanding economic cooperation with Bulgaria on Wednesday, saying he will put a joint economic committee and an industrial cooperation committee between the two countries into full operation next year.

Bad news everyone. You know how statistics and the internet do an amazing job at capturing reality? Well, the two recently combined their powers of assessment and aimed them unforgivingly at your face. Internet dating, perhaps the highest authority on beauty, has just released an exclusive, damning report on how ugly you are.

Russian president Vladimir Putin could not help laughing when Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachov mentioned exporting pork to Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country. During the October 13 meeting on the development of agriculture, Tkachov proposed increasing pork meat exports to Asia. “They (Germany) send half their pork to export.

A total of 110 tombs dating back more than 2,000 years have been discovered in northern China’s Hebei province.
The tombs were used to bury the remains of children, and archeologists estimate there might be 500 to 700 more such tombs in the surrounding area.

A series of tremors and landslides near North Korea's nuclear test base likely mean the country's sixth and largest blast has destabilised the region, and the Punggye-ri nuclear site may not be used for much longer to test nuclear weapons, experts say.

In 1988, the Seoul Summer Olympic Games were held in the Republic of Korea, introducing the Land of the Morning Calm to the world. It was a historic moment for Korea. Ravaged by the Korean War (1950-1953), the country had long been dependent on foreign aid. However, within 30 years, Korea achieved a level of economic growth commonly described as the Miracle on the Han River.

Johns Hopkins scientists say they have developed a blood test that spots tumor-specific DNA and protein biomarkers for early-stage pancreatic cancer. The combined “liquid biopsy” identified the markers in the blood of 221 patients with the early-stage disease. Their results, published online the week of Sept.

Turkey's economy has continued its recovery in the first half of 2017 after growth bounced back in the last quarter of 2016 and was similarly robust in the first quarter, Moody's Investors Service has announced.        
"As a result, we have raised our 2017 growth forecast to 3.7 percent from 2.6 percent. We expect growth in 2018 to average 3.2 percent," Moody's said on Aug. 30.    

The digital currency Bitcoin has reached new highs this week. Having hit the $3,000 mark earlier this month, the cryptocurrency climbed past $4,000 for the first time on Sunday. The bitcoin price has more than quadrupled since January 1, putting even the best-performing S&P 500 stocks to shame.

EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has called for an urgent deescalation of the Korea peninsula crisis - "through peaceful, not military, means."