The Korea Herald

Huntsman to quit U.S. presidential race

World NewsJan 16, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to China who tried to avoid partisan attacks during a presidential campaign that never connected with Republican primary voters, will withdraw Monday from the race for the nomination, campaign officials told the Associated Press on Sunday.Huntsman will endorse front-runner Mitt Romney at an event in South Carolina, where the next primary will be held, the officials said. Huntsman believes Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack
Cruise captain blasted as more bodies are found

World NewsJan 16, 2012

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) ― Maritime authorities, passengers and mounting evidence pointed Sunday toward the captain of a cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, amid accusations that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated and was showing off when he steered the vessel far too close to shore.Divers searching the murky depths of the partially submerged Costa Concordia found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, bringing the confirmed death to
Chinese basketball star Yao Ming enters politics

World NewsJan 16, 2012

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― Not content with owning a basketball team, studying business and making wine, China’s former NBA superstar Yao Ming has now become the youngest ― and tallest ― legislative advisor in Shanghai.The 31-year-old was formally accepted as a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature at the weekend ― a position that entitles him to make proposals for possible new laws ― the official China Daily reported.A photograph printed by the newspaper shows the 2.29-meter Yao towering a
‘Hillary’s lawyer’ proud of Korea

World NewsJan 16, 2012

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― Working as the chief legal adviser of the U.S. State Department, Harold Hongju Koh calls Secretary of State Hillary Clinton his “client,” rather than the boss.Koh, a prominent Korean-American expert on international law, starts his working day by meeting with Clinton. “I am the legal adviser of the U.S. Department of State, which means that I am a lawyer for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and I do the international law work for the U.S. Department of State. I super
S. Korean couple recalls 30 hours trapped in wrecked ship

World NewsJan 16, 2012

A South Korean honeymoon couple who survived a fatal cruise ship accident in Italy on Monday recounted their panic-filled 30 hours spent trapped inside the darkened and upended ship. (Yonhap News)"We slipped into the corridor as water began to rise in our cabin. We then shouted ourselves hoarse
Cruise company: Captain made ‘errors in judgment’

World NewsJan 16, 2012

The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP) People stop and look the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side, after it ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Ja
Perry: Marines in video are 'kids,' not criminals

PodcastJan 16, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of "over-the-top rhetoric" and "disdain for the military" in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.Perry's comments put him at o
Russian space probe crashes into Pacific

ScienceJan 16, 2012

MOSCOW (AP) _ A Russian space probe designed to boost the nation's pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars came down in flames Sunday, showering fragments into the south Pacific west of Chile's coast, officials said.Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth's orbit, landed in
Ship aground off Italy; 3 bodies found

World NewsJan 15, 2012

PORTO SANTO STEFANO, Italy (AP) -- Survivors who escaped a luxury cruise liner that ran aground and tipped over off Italy’s coast recounted a chaotic and terrifying evacuation through the ship’s upended hallways on Saturday, as divers searched the submerged part for any people still unaccounted for in the confusion.Three bodies were recovered from the sea after the Costa Concordia with 4,234 people aboard ran aground hundreds of meters off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late
‘French Steve Jobs’ shakes up mobile phone market

World BusinessJan 15, 2012

PARIS (AFP) ― Hailed as the French Steve Jobs, entrepreneur Xavier Niel is shaking up the country’s mobile phone market with a maverick style far removed from France’s traditionally conservative business practices.A rare business heavyweight not to emerge from the country’s elite universities, Niel started his career in the 1980s operating adult chat services on a French forerunner to the Internet called Minitel.In 2002 he launched Freeview, a pioneering set-top box that offered combined Interne
iPad 3 is coming in March

World BusinessJan 15, 2012

Apple Inc.’s next iPad, expected to go on sale in March, will sport a high-definition screen, run a faster processor and work with next-generation wireless networks, according to three people familiar with the product. The company’s manufacturing partners in Asia started ramping up production of the iPad 3 this month and plan to reach full volumes by February, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public. The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement
P.M. says Japan must tackle debt to avoid rate cut

World BusinessJan 15, 2012

TOKYO (AP) ― Japan’s prime minister, attempting to build support for painful fiscal reforms, said Saturday that the country should be alarmed by ratings cuts in Europe and must tackle its massive public debts to avoid becoming the next target.Japan’s debt is more than twice its gross domestic product, higher than any of the struggling European economies whose fiscal problems have set off a eurozone crisis that has reverberated in markets around the world. Japan’s credit rating was downgraded las
Greece faces acute danger without debt deal, EU loans

World BusinessJan 15, 2012

ATHENS (AFP) ― Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on Friday said his country faced “acute economic dangers” without eurozone loans and the conclusion of debt write-down talks that were suspended earlier in the day.“We are fully aware of how critical the situation is,” Papademos told a dinner hosted by the Greek-German chamber of commerce.“Until the (debt write-down talks) are complete and the new loan agreement is voted, the country continues to face acute economic dangers,” he said.Papademos
Egypt’s ElBaradei ends presidential bid

World NewsJan 15, 2012

CAIRO (AP) ― Egypt’s reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei withdrew from the presidential race Saturday, saying a fair election is impossible under the military’s grip nearly a year after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Many fear that the ruling generals will push through a candidate of their own to preserve their power.The Nobel Peace laureate’s pullout is a slap to the military and the credibility of its plans for Egypt’s transition. He was seen as the most pro-revolution of the candidates and the strongest
Bomb kills at least 53 pilgrims in Iraq

World NewsJan 15, 2012

ZUBAIR, Iraq (AP) ― A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the American military withdrawal.Fears of more bloodshed have risen in recent weeks, with the U.S. no longer enjoying the leverage it once had to encourage the two sides to work together to rein in extremists. Most of the latest attacks appear