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Royal slip shows on Queen's visit to South Korean homeHAHOE VILLAGE (SOUTH KOREA): Britain's Queen Elizabeth II fell foul of Korean socia...

Royal slip shows on Queen’s visit to South Korean home

HAHOE VILLAGE (SOUTH KOREA): Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II fell foul of Korean social etiquette during a visit to a dignitary’s home here on Wednesday and had to be asked to go outside and remove her shoes. The queen, on an historic first visit to South Korea by a British head of state, made the gaffe when she was invited into the ladies’ living room at the home of village patriarch Ryu Yong-Ha in this ancient hamlet, witnesses said.

Moments after entering the white-papered room, members of the aristocratic household and officials told the queen’s aides she had broken the Asian rule that people should take off their footwear before going inside. “The message was passed on and she then stepped back outside the room and took off her shoes before going back inside to sit down,” a photographer on the scene said. The monarch left her white pumps on the wooden step outside the ladies’ living quarters of the 400-year-old house where earlier, in linewith tradition, she was barred from entering the men-only living room.

Go have an egg, it’s not unhealthy, assures study

CHICAGO: An egg a day really is OK, according to US researchers who found that healthy people eating up to seven eggs a week didn’t increase their risk for heart attacks or strokes. “Our study doesn’t mean that people should go back to the typical western diet — a breakfast with two eggs, bacon, sausage, butter and toast. This kind of diet is very unhealthy,” said Dr Frank B Hu, whose research used data from two long-running landmark studies. People are afraid of eggs “because the cholesterol is so high and their reputation is so bad,” said Dr Hu, a nutritional epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. “But eggs, per se… I don’t think they deserve such a bad reputation.”

Diabetics, however, did face higher risks of heart attacks or strokes with increased egg consumption, according to the study, which is being published in the journal of the AmericanMedical Association.

Kohl gets US Presidential Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON: United States President Bill Clinton has bestowed the top US civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on former German chancellor Helmut Kohl. Clinton presented the award during a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday in recognition for Kohl’s political leadership in Europe and the world during his 16 years as leader of the German government. Kohl is scheduled to be honoured as Statesman of the Decade by the Eastwest Institute in New York on Thursday.