South Korea’s leading carmak-ers -- Hyundai and Kia -- are en-joying their drastic increase in sales from October to December last year.

According to news reports, Hyundai and Kia brands almost quadrupled its fourth-quarter profit.

Hyundai-Kia sales up in U.S.

Hyundai forecasts an 11 per-cent rise in its auto sales around the world this year, up to 3.5 million vehicles.

The reports said Hyundai is in-troducing three new models in South Korea, and the new Tuc-son crossover -- and Sonata sedan -- in the United States. A new Santa Fe is being sold well there.

Publishing association to boost e-book business

Although e-books, or electronic

books, have been around Korea for

some time, never has the busi-ness

enjoyed such a rosy outlook as it

does these days.

With electronics companies at home and abroad rolling out the latest

models of smartphones and tablet PCs, public and indus-trial interest in e-books is more intense than

ever.

And the Korea Electronic Publishing Association, under the Culture Ministry, believes

now is the perfect time to unveil new measures to boost the country’s e-book business.

The association an-nounced

yesterday that it will hold education programs start-

ing next month on how to best produce and distribute e-

books. It said the free program

will teach publishers and writ-

ers how to create e-books and give an overview of the e-

book market. The association

said it will help participants sign contracts with distributors.

The association’s ultimate goal? To help the country’s publishers create some 100,000 e-books every year.

“There are some 30,000 pub-lishers that didn’t publish any books last

year, hundreds of thousands of writers and some 40 distribu-

tors of e-books,” said Jang Ki-yeong, the association’s di-rector. “We hope to usher in an environment in which anyone with imagination and

planning capabilities can start up an e-book business.”

An increasing number of Korean publishers haven’t been able to publish books due to the shrinking bookmarket. According to statistics compiled by the Korean Publishers Association, more

than90 percent of the country’s

31,700 registered publishing companies didn’t publish paper books last year. But the e-book business is a different story. According to Digital Kyobo Book’s estimates, Korea’s e-book market will be worth around 1.06 trillion won ($935 million) by the end of this year, and more than 2.4 trillion won in 2012.

South Korean Navy patrol boat sinks in Yellow SeaAs helicopters and nearby boats

scrambled to effect a rescue op-eration, a South Korean Navy pa-trol boat sank near the inter-Ko-rean border in the Yellow Sea on Friday night, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

As the ship sank, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Navy fired toward the north after a radar disclosed an unidentified objection in that direction at the time of the accident.

One hundred and five crew members were aboard the 1,200-ton Patrol Combat Corvette Cheonan, and 58 of them had been rescued as of 1 a.m. Saturday, military sources said.

No immediate information was available about their condition or about the other men.

According to the military’s press release, the bottom of the strip was destroyed by an unidentified cause while it was on a patrol mission in the wa-ters near the Baeknyeong Is-land around 9:45 p.m. A Navy source who asked for anonymity told the JoongAng Ilbo “there’s a very low possi-bility that a Patrol Combat Corvette would sink due to an internal explosion,” and “We should not rule out the possi-bility that it may be a North Korean attack.”

President Lee Myung-bak im-mediately called an emergency meeting of his security minis-ters, presidential aides and the head of the National Intelli-gence Service at the under-ground bunker of the Blue House around 10 p.m.

“The cause of the sinking was not immediately identified,” Kim Eun-hye, Blue House spokes-woman, told the YTN around midnight. “It is unclear whether the incident is linked with North Korea at this point.”

According to Kim, President Lee ordered the government and military to do their best to rescue the crew members and quickly determine the cause of the sinking.

The Cheonan was operationally deployed in 1989, and the Navy operates about 20 ships of the same class.

How to Choose a Role Model1 Choose someone who has a lot of

confidence in themselves and their abilities. A good role model would be someone who knows who they are. You don't want someone who is down and who will bring you down. You want someone who won't pretend to be someone they are not, and won't be fake just to suit other people.

2 Consider someone who thinks it is alright to be unique; even if that means accepting some ridicule. They should make you feel good about being yourself. They shouldn't make you compare yourself to them and wish you were someone you are not.

3 Think about someone who inter-acts well with others as well as someone who is kind and can com-municate well with people.

4 Look for someone who is living life the way you would like to. If you want to be a famous author, your role model could be someone who has been successful at writing. If you have always wanted to be a nurse, your role model could be someone at your local hospital who is dedicated to their job and some-one who you look up to for their achievements.

5 Find someone who doesn't always take credit for what they do. Teach-ers or nurses are good examples of role models. However, celebrities and ath-letes tend to be conceited and take credit for what they do.

6 Choose a role model who may have done something you find admirable, such as raised a lot of money for charity, saved lots of lives, helped people in need or discovered the cure for a disease.

Photographer groups sue Google over Book

Search As a judge debates the final out-

come of Google's settlement with book publishers and authors, photog-raphers are ready to prolong the de-bate.

The American Society of Media Pho-tographers (ASMP) filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit Wednesday against Google, claiming that Google's Book Search project was undertaken without negotiating rights to their images with the pho-tographers. That's the same argu-ment originally leveled against Google in 2005 on behalf of book au-thors, who wound up settling with the company in 2008.

However, that settlement has yet to be approved, as many authors have objected to the terms of the deal. According to the Financial Times, Judge Denny Chin told representa-tives for photographers that joining that lawsuit at this point would throw a wrench into the entire process and advised them to file their own suit.

"We are seeking justice and fair compensation for visual artists whose work appears in the twelve million books and other publications Google has illegally scanned to date," said Victor Perlman, general counsel for the ASMP, in a press re-lease. "In doing so, we are giving voice to thousands of disenfran-chised creators of visual artworks whose rights we hope to enforce through this class action."

For its part, Google said in a statement: "We are confident that Google Books is fully compliant with U.S. and international copy-right law."

The ASMP's suit was also filed on behalf of the Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America, the North American Na-ture Photography Association, Pro-fessional Photographers of Amer-ica, photographers Leif Skoogfors, Al Satterwhite, Morton Beebe, Ed Kashi and illustrators John Schmelzer and Simms Taback.

This week's top best sellers

( F=Fiction, NF=Nonfiction, P=Paperback,

H=Hardcover, E=E-book)Based on sales through Sunday, April 4,

20101. The Last Song Nicholas Sparks, Grand Central Publishing The story of a teenage girl distraught over

her parents' divorce; movie (F) (P) $7.99 2. The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary Jeff Kinney, Amulet Books Companion to the film adaptation; in-

cludes photographs, script pages and original art (F) (H) $14.95

3. Conservative Victory Sean Hannity, Harper Paperbacks Subtitle: "Defeating Obama's Radical

Agenda" (NF) (P) $14.99

4. The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson, Vintage An Eastern European sex-trafficking ring

involving prominent Swedes propels this sequel to "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (F) (P) $15.95

5. Dear John Nicholas Sparks, Grand Central Publish-

ing Love, duty in the aftermath of Septem-

ber 11; movie (F) (P) $7.99 6. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson, Vintage Journalist is hired to investigate the dis-

appearance of an heir to a wealthy family (F) (P) $14.95