WASHINGTON (AP) ― A year after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida is hobbled and hunted, too busy surviving for the moment to carry out another Sept. 11-style attack on U.S. soil.But the terrorist network dreams still of payback, and U.S. counterterrorist officials warn that, in time, its offshoots may deliver.A decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that has cost the U.S. about $1.28 trillion and 6,300 U.S. troops’ lives has forced al-Qaida’s affiliates to regroup, from Yemen t

Ismail Giu no longer pockets the money he earns as the man in charge of protocol for the government of Gorontalo in Indonesia. It all goes straight into his wife’s bank account.In yet another sign that times are changing in parts of Asia such as Gorontalo, a predominantly Muslim province in Sulawesi, more and more wives control the purse strings.A new ruling that went into effect there last month requires all married men who are civil servants to hand over their monthly salaries to their wives.W

BEIJING (AFP) ― As more and more Chinese buy cars, automakers say consumer tastes in the Asian nation have a growing influence on vehicle design the world over.China emerged as the world’s top car market in 2009, and though the sector stalled last year, with sales rising just 2.5 percent to 18.51 million, carmakers are convinced it is where the industry’s future lies.Manufacturers at this week’s Auto China 2012 exhibition in Beijing said they have started to include features that appeal to the C

Human rights and welfare have become political issues in Korea in the recent general elections and the run-up to December’s presidential poll. Less discussed but gaining prominence is the issue of animal rights in the country, which only passed its first Animal Welfare Law in 1991. In the first such case in Korean history, a court this month ruled on the case of five illegally captured dolphins.The president and a director of Pacific Land, a tourist attraction near Jungmun Beach on the south coa