other interesting headlines

- It is reported that Cheong-gye-cheon greatly helped the Jongro area not to be flooded by flush rainfalls. Cheong-gye-cheon area was, before restoration, frequently damaged by heavy downpours.

- A witness confirmed to the police that a while girl, aged 13-15, was spotted to come out of the house of a French man who found two frozen dead bodies of babies in his refrigerator. The witness is reported to have watched the girl very carefully because the witness knew the French family was on vacation and there was nobody in the house.

- The presidential office is in agony over whom it will pick as the next Justice Minister. There are several people in its shortlist but they are said not to be competent enough to be the minister. In the case of Moon Jae-in, Roh’s former senior secretary for civil affairs, who is favored by Cheong Wa Dae, the opposition party is highly likely to disapprove.

- Ban Ki-moon won the straw poll for the next secretary-general of the UN with 12 ‘ecourage’, 1 ‘discourage’ and two ‘no opinion’ votes.

- It is not clear how many North Korean bank accounts were frozen by Bank of China but it is said the amount of money will be much higher than $24m in the frozen account of Banco Delta Asia.

- Kim Young-ki, a judge in Gwangju District Court, is very popular among female employees. He turns into a DJ in every Tuesday morning and runs an in-house radio program in which he receives song requests, delivers messages, and shares in-house information.

- Controversy theory is raised within the GNP surrounding the golf scandal of some of its lawmakers who enjoyed golf games in the Gangwon province, the most severely hit area by flush downpours. The theory goes that an aide to Lee Myong-bak prepared the golf game in the flooded area in order to get them embroiled into trouble. The aide apparently didn’t join the game.

- Samsung Group decides not to employ people who can’t communicate in English from the second half of this year, which triggers disputes among netizens.

- Regarding growing suspicion that he plagiarized the thesis of his student, Education Minister Kim Byong-joon strongly countered, “the truth is that the student quoted the hypothesis, methodology, and framework of my thesis.”