RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ― The Brazilian government confirmed this week the existence of an uncontacted tribe in a southwestern area of the Amazon rain forest.Three large clearings in the area had been identified by satellite, but the population’s existence was only verified after airplane expeditions in April gathered more data, the National Indian Foundation said in a news release Monday.The governme

NEW YORK (Yonhap News) ― Ban Ki-moon, who was reelected as United Nations secretary-general here Tuesday, has had his share of success in his first term, fending off critics in the process, but he has some work cut out for him over the next five years in his second tour of duty.A former South Korean foreign minister, Ban has so far successfully answered questions surrounding his leadership with hi

(YouTube)A young break dancer became a hit on YouTube when a video of his performance was put on the Web.Only 9 years old, the dancer boasted splendid steps while splashing around in water, but there was one more unique thing about the star -- he is a rare Western lowland gorilla at Calgary Zoo. Bred in Bronx Zoo in New York City, Zola was relocated to Calgary Zoo in Canada two years ago. The zook

BAGHDAD – Suicide bombers detonated two explosives-laden vehicles early Tuesday near a government compound by a southern Iraqi governor's home, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens, Iraqi officials said.The attacks come as Iraq's top political factions started to discuss in earnest whether to ask some of the U.S. troops to stay beyond the Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline because of the securi

Fund interviews Carstens for top job; Lagarde nextWASHINGTON (AP) ― The International Monetary Fund said Monday it will interview the two leading candidates for the top job at the 187-nation lending institution this week with the goal of naming a new chief by June 30.In a statement, the IMF said that Agustin Carstens, the head of Mexico’s central bank, will meet with the agency’s executive board o

U.S. president to announce blueprint on withdrawal of troops, handover of powerWASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama will announce the critical next steps in America’s decade-long war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, outlining both a plan to start bringing thousands of U.S. troops home next month and a broader withdrawal blueprint aimed at giving Afghans control of their own security in 2014.But ev

MOSCOW, June 21, 2011 (AFP) - Forty-four people were killed and eight badly injured when a plane crashed onto a highway and burst into flames in northern Russia, narrowly missing an inhabited area, officials said Tuesday.The RussAir Tu-134 tried to stage an apparent emergency landing in poor weather conditions just before midnight on a motorway two kilometres (1.25miles) from its destination of Pe

CHONGQING, China (AFP) ― Hu Xinglian kneels before the corpse of Liang Zhicai and, with one hand on his metal coffin, lets out a piercing wail. But Hu is not at all grief-stricken ― she is a professional mourner.In parts of China, where rural pre-burial rituals are still observed, mourners known as “kusangren” are hired to guarantee that a funeral is a spectacle in grief. And 53-year-old Hu is up

Kim Yoo-shin regained his Korean citizenship in April, 36 years after he was adopted by a family in the United States when he was one year old. He is one of the first adoptees to benefit from a new Korean law that allows dual nationality.In other words, Kim is a Korean-American ― and vice versa.“It means that the Korean government is trying to improve its relationship with overseas Korean adoptees