The Korea Herald

Emergency food flown into European towns

World NewsFeb 14, 2012

Officials deploy soldiers to clear roads across Romania, help those trapped by snowBUCHAREST (AP) ― Military planes and police helicopters flew in tons of emergency food to snowbound villages and ships in the Balkans on Monday, after blizzards so fierce that some people had to cut tunnels through 4 meters of snow to get out of their homes.Since the end of January, Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap and the heaviest snowfall in recent memory. Hundreds of people, many
Obama sends $3.8 trillion budget to Congress

World BusinessFeb 14, 2012

President Barack Obama sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget plan Monday with stimulus spending and tax increases for the wealthiest Americans, spelling out election- year priorities that drew immediate Republican opposition. Obama is proposing more money for jobs, highways and bridges, schools, student aid and manufacturing research as well as higher taxes for corporations, banks and oil, natural gas and coal companies, even as the nation’s debt grows faster than the administration predicted in
Fitch, S&P downgrade Spanish banks

World BusinessFeb 14, 2012

MADRID (AFP) ― Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s on Monday lowered their credit rating of Spanish banks, including the country’s four largest lenders, following their downgrade of Spain last month.Fitch cut its rating for Santander, the biggest eurozone bank by market capitalisation, by two notches to “A” and cut its ratings for BBVA, Bankia and CaixaBank by one notch.Standard & Poor’s cut its rating for the banks ― Spain’s four biggest ― as well as for 11 other Spanish lenders.The agency lowe
Labor group begins Foxconn inspections

World BusinessFeb 14, 2012

Apple Inc. said the Fair Labor Association began auditing supplier Foxconn Technology Group’s plants in China, the first inspections in an effort to respond to criticism of conditions for workers making its gadgets. Assessments will take about two weeks and include at least four campuses in China, Louis Woo, chairman of Foxconn’s retail unit and a spokesman for the Taipei-based company, said in a phone interview Tuesday. More than 10 association representatives are now at two factories in Shenzh
Apple tops Google for No. 1 corporate image

World BusinessFeb 14, 2012

Apple Inc., burnished by the iPhone’s success and memorials to Steve Jobs, displaced Google Inc. as top company in Harris Interactive’s poll of corporate images. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Johnson & Johnson dropped. Apple earned the highest score in the 13-year history of Harris’ survey of U.S. consumers, buoyed by the Cupertino, California-based company’s financial success and products like last year’s iPhone 4S, said Robert Fronk, the pollster’s executive vice president. The rise came even as
Moody’s cuts ratings for Italy, Portugal, Spain

World BusinessFeb 14, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― Ratings agency Moody’s Investor Service on Monday downgraded its credit ratings on Italy, Portugal and Spain, while France, Britain and Austria kept their top ratings but had their outlooks dropped to “negative” from “stable.” Moody’s also cut its ratings on the smaller nations of Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta. All nine countries are members of the European Union. The agency said it took the actions due to the uncertainty over EU financial reforms, the region’s weak economic outlo
U.S. bid to spark Afghan-led peace talks faces hurdles

World NewsFeb 14, 2012

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― The United States is engaging in intense exploratory talks with the Taliban in a bid to launch Afghan-led negotiations aimed at ending a decade-long war, but such negotiations face daunting hurdles.Questions swirl around a flurry of talks involving State Department special envoy Marc Grossman who wants the Taliban to set up an office in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar to serve as an open platform for negotiations.Analysts said that while the United States has made clear it intend
Pig slaughter video spurs outrage in U.K.

World NewsFeb 14, 2012

Undercover filming by an animal rights group, Animal Equality (AE) has revealed pigs at a British farm being abused by workers, BBC reported Monday.A member of the AE got a job at Harling Farm and secretly filmed farm workers brutally killing injured pigs with iron bars.Britain’s Royal Society for t
Washington gov signs gay marriage bill into law

World NewsFeb 14, 2012

OLYMPIA, Washington (AP) -- Gov. Chris Gregoire handed gay rights advocates a major victory Monday, signing into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage in Washington state, making it the seventh in the nation to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.Gov. Chris Gregoire signed the bill surrounded by gay rights supporters. Gay marriage is already legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C."I‘m proud our same-sex couples will no longer be
TV anchor got 70 stitches after on-air dog bite

World NewsFeb 14, 2012

A Denver morning television anchor who was bitten in the face by an 85-pound (39-kilogram) dog during a live broadcast says she needed 70 stitches in her lips and nose.Kyle Dyer of KUSA-TV wrote on her Facebook page over the weekend that she can't talk because her mouth is stitched shut to let a ski
Iran: Nuclear facilities immune to cyber attacks

World NewsFeb 14, 2012

TEHRAN (AP) ― A senior Iranian military official said Monday that Tehran’s nuclear and other industrial facilities suffer periodic cyber attacks, but that the country has the technology to protect itself from the threat, an official news agency reported.Iran considers itself to have been waging a complicated cyber war since 2010, when a virus known as Stuxnet disrupted controls of some nuclear centrifuges.“Most enemy threats target nuclear energy sites as well as electronic trade and banking ope
Moody’s cuts ratings, outlooks on 9 EU countries

World BusinessFeb 14, 2012

Moody’s on Monday downgraded the debt ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal and placed negative outlooks on France, Britain and Austria, blaming the ongoing fallout from the eurozone crisis.Ratings were also cut for Slovenia, Slovakia and Malta, with Moody’s saying all nine countries were increasingl
Bahrain security tight before uprising anniversary

World NewsFeb 13, 2012

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- Bahrain deployed thousands of security forces Sunday to confront anti-government protesters ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Shiite-led uprising that seeks to loosen the ruling Sunni dynasty‘s monopoly on power.Opposition groups urged marchers to stream toward an empty lot dubbed “Freedom Square” outside the capital Manama. Some activists seek to occupy the site before Tuesday’s anniversary of the start of the wave of protests, and turn it into a new semi-permanen
More remains found in Calif. with killer's help

World NewsFeb 13, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Authorities searching with the help of a convicted serial killer found more human remains Saturday -- the first bones discovered at an abandoned well on a cattle ranch where a death row inmate claimed 10 or more victims may be buried, authorities said.The discovery marked
Malaysia deports Saudi journalist in Twitter row

PodcastFeb 13, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) -- Malaysia on Sunday deported a young Saudi journalist wanted in his home country over a Twitter post about the Prophet Mohammed, defying pleas from human rights group who said he faced execution.Hamza Kashgari, who was detained in Malaysia on Thursday after fleeing Saudi Arabia,