Theresa Kim Hwa-young

The veterinarian who falsely claimed he could clone human stem cells wins back ownership of canine cloning technologies that had launched his brief, albeit controversial, career.

North Korea wants talks to reach an agreement and end sanctions. For the United States, normalisation of relations is linked to human rights, whose situation it calls "appalling". US embassies are ordered to help North Korean refugees.

On Christmas Day, about a thousand people, Catholics, Buddhists and others, held a Mass in memory of the victims of a fire that broke out on 20 January of this year in downtown Seoul. Five people demonstrating against the forced removal of local residents and a police officer died in the blaze. Those who caused the incident have still not been prosecuted. Police and government are accused of using heavy-handed means to suppress popular dissent and cover up what happened.

The message of Christmas, an invitation to overcome the culture of death and the quest for material goods. Sharing wealth with the poor, the love of Christ with family and friends, promote the value of life, the way to defeat "isolation".

North Korea has accepted the offer of medical supplies and confirmed nine cases of infection. Closure of primary and secondary schools. South Korea NGO reports seven deaths from H1N1. Ended of three-day visit by U.S. diplomat to Pyongyang.

Women enter the country on ‘Arts and Performance’ visas but are soon turned into waitresses who have to sell their bodies if they cannot sell between 200 and 500 drinks a month. Human rights activists want the government to intervene.

The Lee administration launches the ‘Four Rivers Restoration Project’ worth US$ 20 billion to improve the environment, promote tourism and bring under control recurrent flooding and drought. Opposition Democrat Party says a conflict of interest, the administration’s “dictatorial” ways and a waste of resources taint the project.

According to the Red Cross there are only 15 thousand units left. Japan closes 14 thousand schools in a week. Chinese health authorities reported that 8 out of 10 cases of influenza caused by H1N1 virus. In India the Chief Minister of Gujarat infected.

The government has hardened policy in order to identify and expel workers without the right residency papers. In six months, 17,000 migrants lost their job and were deported.

South Korea is blocking humanitarian aid worth millions of dollars and visits to the North. The humanitarian emergency might get worse if trade relations collapse.

In 30 years, agricultural land has been almost halved in South Korea. Rural depopulation leads to new social problems as immigration from other Asian countries gives rise to multicultural families.

Government officials on a mission to Europe to negotiate the purchase of antiviral drugs. Schools and colleges postpone the start of the academic year, teachers and students returning from abroad can not participate in lessons. In the United States between 60 and 120 million cases of infection forecast by the end of 2009.