2 Koreas to hold senior-level meeting in Seoul

2 Koreas to hold senior-level meeting in Seoul

Associated Press/South Korean Unification Ministry - In this photo released by the South Korean Unification Ministry, South Korea's Unification Policy Officer Chun Hae-sung, left, shakes hands with the head of North Korea's delegation Kim Song Hye, right, after ending their meeting at the southern side of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, South Korea, Monday, June 10, 2013. The rival Koreas will hold senior-level talks this week in Seoul, South Korea said Monday, a breakthrough of sorts after Pyongyang’s recent threats of nuclear war and Seoul’s vows of counterstrikes.(AP Photo/South Korean Unification Ministry

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North and South Korea agreed Monday to hold senior-level talks this week in Seoul, a breakthrough of sorts to ease tensions after Pyongyang's recent threats of nuclear war and Seoul's vows of counterstrikes.

The two-day meeting starting Wednesday will focus on stalled cooperation projects, including the resumption of operations at a jointly-run factory park near the border in North Korea that was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement until Pyongyang pulled out its workers in April during heightened tensions that followed its February nuclear test.

The details of the upcoming talks were ironed out in a nearly 17-hour negotiating session by lower-level officials. Those discussions began Sunday in the countries' first government-level meeting on the Korean Peninsula in more than two years and took place at the village of Panmunjom on their heavily armed border, near where the armistice ending the three-year Korean War was signed 60 years ago next month. That truce has never been replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically at war.

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http://news.yahoo.com/2-koreas-hold-senior-level-meeting-seoul-224000712.html

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To retire securely, save like an Aussie

To retire securely, save like an Aussie

In the United States, fewer than half of all workers participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. In Australia, about 90% of the workforce has a formal retirement account. The most important difference between the two systems, as Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Nick Summers explains in a recent piece, is that in Australia, contributing to your account is mandatory—and most workers now put in a minimum of 9% of each paycheck. The result: A little more than 20 years after it was enacted, Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee program now has $1.52 trillion in assets, a little over half as much as the $2.8 trillion parked in American 401(k)s—in a country whose population is only one-fourteenth the size of ours.

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http://blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2013/06/06/to-retire-securely-save-like-an-aussie/

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France: Daytime Hours for Aging Clubbers in Paris

Daytime Hours for Aging Clubbers in Paris

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US: You Say 'Car-ml,' I Say 'Carra-mel'

You Say 'Car-ml,' I Say 'Carra-mel'

Soda vs. pop: Coastal residents are more likely to use the word 'soda' (in red), while residents of the upper Midwest tend to use the word 'pop' (blue). 'Coke' (in green) serves as a stand-in for any sweetened, carbonated beverage in some Southern states.

Building on linguistic data from Dr. Bert Vaux of Cambridge University, North Carolina State University graduate student Joshua Katz has highlighted key differences in American dialects. These maps show the differences. ( See his full project. )

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324798904578529272964502276.html?mod=e2fb#slide/1

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US: We are being secretly watched

Monumental phone-records monitoring is laid bare

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leaked document has laid bare the monumental scope of the government's surveillance of Americans'phone records — hundreds of millions of calls — in the first hard evidence of a massive data collection program aimed at combating terrorism under powers granted by Congress after the 9/11 attacks.

At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications companyVerizon to turn over on an "ongoing, daily basis" the records of all landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries. Intelligence experts said the government, though not listening in on calls, would be looking for patterns that could lead to terrorists — and that there was every reason to believe similar orders were in place for other phone companies.

Some critics in Congress, as well as civil liberties advocates, declared that the sweeping nature of the National Security Agency program represented an unwarranted intrusion into Americans' private lives. But a number of lawmakers, including some Republicans who normally jump at the chance to criticize the Obama administration, lauded the program's effectiveness. Leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said the program had helped thwart at least one attempted terrorist attack in the United States, "possibly saving American lives."

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http://news.yahoo.com/monumental-phone-records-monitoring-laid-bare-214828693.html

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Generation X Fares Poorly During Recession, Says Study

Generation X Fares Poorly During Recession, Says Study

Members of Generation X, the so-called slackers weaned on Saturday morning cartoons, divorce and cynicism, are now in their late 30s to late 40s. And according to a recent report, they really do have something to complain about.

A Pew Charitable Trust study, titled "Retirement Security Across Generations," examined the savings behavior of five age groups before the Great Recession hit and found that Gen Xers - the group of Americans following the baby boomers that range in age from 38 to 47 - fared especially poorly during the recent economic down swing. As a result, their retirement years will likely be more tarnished than golden.

The study, using data from 1989 through 2010 collected by the Federal Reserve Board and the University of Michigan, found that between 2007 and 2010, Gen Xers-which the report defined as those born between 1966 and 1975-lost nearly half of their overall net worth, an average of about $33,000, and also had higher levels of debt than previous generations.

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http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/generation-x-fares-poorly-during-recession-study-finds-172934936.html

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US: Cities Where Suburban Poverty Is Skyrocketing

Cities Where Suburban Poverty Is Skyrocketing

The number of poor people in U.S. suburbs rose by 63.6% between 2000 and 2011, from 10 million to well over 16 million people. For the first time, there are now more people living in poverty in the suburbs than in cities. In some metro areas, the number of poor people living outside the city proper has jumped even more rapidly. In the Atlanta, Ga., suburbs there are roughly 480,000 more people living below the poverty line than there were in 2000, an extraordinary 158% increase in the number of the suburban poor. Based on data collected by the Brookings Institution as part of a comprehensive study on suburban poverty, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 cities with the biggest increases in suburban poverty between 2000 and 2011.

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http://247wallst.com/2013/05/28/cities-where-suburban-poverty-is-skyrocketing/

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