The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

Pyongyang, North Korea— South Korea and North Korea on Saturday agreed to hold their first high-level talks in nearly a year at the border village of Panmunjom to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation. 

London—Working 55 hours or more a week might be associated with greater risk of stroke and developing coronary heart disease, compared with working a standard 35 to 40 hours a week, according to a study published in the journal The Lancet late last week. 

By Joe Kay / The Associated Press Mason, Ohio—Novak Djokovic played his best match. Serena Williams? Well, she needed to pull a Serena to move on. 

Greensboro, North Carolina—Tiger Woods signed up for his first Wyndham Championship knowing a win would definitively keep his season from ending. 

Top beverage brand Milo once again welcomed young athletes to the 2015 Milo Little Olympics, regarded as the most recognized and longest-running inter-school youth sports competition in the Philippines. 

Review by Sandy Cohen / The Associated Press The idea of the high-tech, emotionless supersoldier is so popular in movies, it’s practically a convention. The Terminator and Bourne franchises, and even last year’s animated Big Hero 6, imagine characters programmed to kill and the would-be world destroyers who want to control them. 

Los Angeles—At 75, Lily Tomlin is loving the roles coming her way, but not necessarily the spotlight. 

By Alvin I. Dacanay A radio-show host, a recent inductee to the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame, a veteran journalist, and a former director of the oldest writers’ workshop in Asia are among the writers chosen to receive this year a lifetime achievement award from the Philippines’s largest organization of Filipino writers, it was learned recently. 

By Lincee Ray / The Associated Press Author Jennifer Weiner delicately sets the stage for a story detailing the celebrations and challenges of romance in Who Do You Love (Simon & Schuster). 

Philippine-Czech ties in culture and the arts are expected to be strengthened further with the recent launch of a new translation-exchange program between the two countries.