The Korea Herald

China reports 2 more cases of new bird flu virus

Apr 7, 2013

BEIJING (AP) – Shanghai has reported two more cases of human infection of a new strain of bird flu, raising the number of cases in eastern China to 20. The death toll among those who contracted the virus remains at six.Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.China's official Xinhua News Agency reported the two new Shanghai cases Sunday, citing local authoritie
China ‘two-child policy’ town shows reform scope

Apr 7, 2013

JIASHAN, China (AFP) ― A few places in China give parents a rare right to have two offspring rather than one, but many stop at a single child anyway ― fuelling demands to end what critics call an unnecessary, harmful rule. “If you have too many kids then it becomes difficult,” said Lu Xiuyan, a 42-year-old restaurant manager in Jiashan, a dusty village of low-slung buildings a few hours northeast of Beijing, who has one son. “But if you have fewer kids, you have less of a burden and you’ll be a
Kerry warns N. Korea on 'reckless' provocations

Apr 3, 2013

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday warned North Korea to halt a recent spate of rhetoric and actions, calling them provocative, dangerous and reckless. He also vowed that the United States would defend itself and its allies South Korea and Japan from North Korean threats.Kerry's comments came after North Korea ratcheted up an almost daily string of threats toward the three nations with an announcement that it would revive a long-dormant nuclear reactor and ramp up production of atomic weap
‘I love Paris’ may be passe for Chinese tourists

Mar 31, 2013

PARIS (AFP) ― Mass muggings and attacks on Chinese tourists in Paris have spawned alarm and warnings of a decline in the number of free-spending visitors from the Asian giant who swarm to France.More than one million Chinese visitors come every year to France, a country which for them epitomizes luxury, romance and quality products.But that may very well change, said one expert, citing a slew of recent attacks which he says takes the sheen off the “City of Lights” for Chinese visitors.“This has
Amid tensions, Chinese fruit a turnoff in Vietnam

Mar 26, 2013

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ― Jack Nguyen had sold 20 of his 30 containers of imported American grapes when fresh rumors hit the Internet and state-run media: Chinese fruit on sale in Vietnam might look good, but it contains deadly levels of preservatives and pesticides. Shoppers quickly stopped buying imported fruit altogether, believing it all tainted or falsely labeled. The last 10 containers rotted.While fears about the safety of Chinese food products are often well founded, in Vietnam they are so t
New Yorkers boldly flout law to keep pigs

Mar 24, 2013

NEW YORK (AP) ― Pigs have long gotten a bad rap. The four-legged ungulates are considered so messy and stinky that they’re synonymous with slovenliness: Eat too much and you’re pigging out. Forget to clean up and your house is a pig pen. And when is a pig happiest? That stigma is perhaps no greater than in New York City, where high-rises and apartments are hardly hospitable to pigs. The city’s health code forbids keeping them as pets, forcing pig owners to operate in secret ― or boldly take the
France's first Korean-born minister in landmark Seoul visit

Mar 23, 2013

French minister Fleur Pellerin begins a highly symbolic trip this weekend to South Korea, the land of her birth, where she is a celebrity due to her roots and a rags-to-riches story. Pellerin, the junior minister for small and medium enterprises, innovation, and the digital economy, is due to meet with South Korea's President ParkGeun-Hye, its prime minister and top officials from leading chaebols, or business conglomerates, such as Samsung and Hyundai. Born in 1973 in Seoul and abandoned,
Pope Francis urges protection of nature, weak

Mar 19, 2013

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis urged princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people gathered for his installation Mass on Tuesday to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest, mapping out a clear focus of his priorities as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics The Argentine native is the first pope from Latin America and the first named for the 13th-century friar St. Francis of Assisi, whose life's work was to care for nature, the poor and most disadvantaged. Echoing th
Antarctica concerns grow as tourism numbers rise again

Mar 17, 2013

ROSS ISLAND, Antarctica (AP) ― Across most of Earth, a tourist attraction that sees 35,000 visitors a year can safely be labeled sleepy. But when it’s Antarctica, every footstep matters. Tourism is rebounding here five years after the financial crisis stifled what had been a burgeoning industry. And it’s not just retirees watching penguins from the deck of a ship. Visitors are taking tours inland and even engaging in “adventure tourism” like skydiving and scuba diving under the ever-sunlit skies
Ten years on, H.K. looks back on SARS outbreak

Mar 17, 2013

HONG KONG (AFP) ― With its bustling streets, shops and busy restaurants, little suggests that ten years ago Amoy Gardens was on the front line of Hong Kong’s battle with a virus that caused a global health crisis.The estate became a beleaguered symbol of the city’s struggle to contain an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, named and declared a “worldwide health threat” by the World Health Organization on March 15, 2003. Hong Kong eventually lost 299 of its citizens to SARS, part of a
Park to visit U.S. on first overseas trip as president

Mar 12, 2013

South Korean President Park Geun-hye will visit the United States on her first overseas trip as president, and the two countries are working on details to set up the trip for early May, the presidential spokesman said Tuesday.When Park will make her first overseas trip as South Korea's president and whether the destination will be the U.S. has been a focus of media attention amid speculation that she may visit China first ahead of Washington.Park "plans to visit the United States at the invitati
[Newsmaker] After Fukushima, Japan struggles to rebuild

Mar 11, 2013

The scene is a memory that will be etched into the minds of people worldwide for a generation. But for those who were there, it will take a generation more to recover.The world watched the catastrophe unfold as a 9.0-magnitude earthquake sent tsunamis up to 45 meters high toward Japan on March 11, 2011, drowning coastal towns and crippling the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The natural disaster left some 16,000 dead, 2,700 missing and 315,00
Stress emerges as major health issue in Fukushima

Mar 10, 2013

MINAMI-SOMA, Japan (AP) ― Japan’s radiation nightmare has turned the lively home that truck driver Takahiro Ishitani once shared with his wife and three sons into a cluttered bachelor pad. A coffee mug full of cigarette butts, a towel and other odds and ends sit on a low table in the apartment’s small living room. He offers a visitor a takeout box lunch, his main source of sustenance these days. Laundry hangs inside so it won’t absorb the radiation that remains in the ground, two years after an
Venezuela sets first post-Chavez election for April 14

Mar 10, 2013

CARACAS — Venezuela called Saturday a snap election to succeed Hugo Chavez on April 14, setting the stage for a tough campaign between the late leader‘s political heir and the opposition in this divided oil-rich nation.　The national electoral council set the date one day after Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked successor, was sworn in as acting president in a ceremony largely boycotted by the opposition, which slammed it as unconstitutional.　Shortly after the date was set, the main opposition c
[Newsmaker] Chavez leaves uncertain legacy

Mar 6, 2013

He may have been a divisive figure, but late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has always been clear about how he wants to be remembered: a revolutionary standing up to the cruel and imperial United States and its cronies.As if to confirm this self-styled image, he told the Associated Press in 2007 that he admired the movie “Gladiator,” in which a lone fighter confronts an empire.Charismatic and populist, he took on Venezuela’s elite while retaining the propensity for impromptu marathon speeches