The Korea Herald

Japan, U.S. unite on N. Korea, differ on Iran

Dec 20, 2011

Tokyo refuses to ban oil imports from Iran; chooses F-35 stealth jetWASHINGTON (AFP) ― The United States and Japan put on a united front Monday after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s death but the allies showed differences elsewhere with the Asian economic giant refusing to stop oil imports from Iran.President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and “underscored the United States’ commitment to the defense of our close allies, including Japan,” the White House sai
China's president visits N. Korea embassy

Dec 20, 2011

BEIJING, Dec 20, 2011 (AFP) - China's President Hu Jintao visited the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Tuesday to offer his condolences on the death of Kim Jong-Il, the official Xinhua news agency said.China is North Korea's closest ally, and just hours after the announcement of Kim's death on Mon
Magazine poll names Strauss-Kahn wife Woman of the Year

Dec 20, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair, who stood by the disgraced former IMF chief during his sex scandal, was named Woman of the Year in a poll for a French woman's magazine on Monday.Sinclair, a 63-year-old French journalist and wealthy art heiress, was chosen as the woman who had most "made
Philippine storm toll exceeds 1,000

Dec 20, 2011

MANILA, Dec 20, 2011 (AFP) - The toll of dead and missing from a cyclone that swept the southern Philippines has exceeded 1,000, a government agency said Tuesday as cities prepared mass burials for the victims. Police officers and volunteers search for flood victims Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, four days
US study says Christians one third of world population

Dec 20, 2011

A major US study released Monday put the total number of Christians worldwide at 2.18 billion -- almost a third -- of the estimated global population of 6.9 billion.Christians make up as big a proportion of the world's population as they did a century ago, but whereas two-thirds of them in 1910 were
Syria mulls Arab observers

Dec 19, 2011

BEIRUT (AP) ― Armed clashes erupted in Syria, killing at least 15 civilians and six government troops, activists said. Isolated and faced with a possible civil war, Syria appeared to be bending toward allowing Arab League observers in as a step toward ending the conflict.The Al-Arabiya TV channel said it had information from the Qatari prime minister that Syrian President Bashar Assad will sign an observer deal but gave no further details. Last month Syria agreed to an Arab League plan but balke
Yemen in danger of becoming next Somalia: U.N.

Dec 19, 2011

International body says Yemen crisis can effect nearly 4 million peopleDUBAI (AFP) ― U.N. agencies warned on Sunday that Yemen is on its way to becoming another Somalia, saying nearly four million people will be affected by the impoverished nation’s political and economic crisis in 2012.“About four million people will be affected by the crisis in Yemen in 2012 and will require immediate humanitarian support,” said the U.N. Inter-Agency Standing Committee.More than half will be “severely food ins
Pakistani president returns amid pressure

Dec 19, 2011

KARACHI (AP) ― Pakistan’s president returned home early Monday, nearly two weeks after a surprise trip to Dubai for medical treatment sparked rumors that he might step down under pressure from the country’s powerful military.President Asif Ali Zardari’s arrival will likely help quell speculation about his future. But officials have not spelled out exactly what was wrong with the president, and he is still under threat from a memo scandal that has upset the army and already forced the Pakistani a
Israel completes swap for captured soldier

Dec 19, 2011

BEITUNIA, West Bank (AP) ― Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners late Sunday, the second and final phase of a swap with Gaza Hamas militants that brought home an Israeli soldier after five years in captivity.Under the Egypt-brokered deal, Israel agreed to exchange a total of 1,027 prisoners for Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in June 2006. Schalit returned home in October when Israel freed the first batch of 477 prisoners. Sunday’s release of 550 prisoners comp
Havel, hero of revolution against communism dies

Dec 19, 2011

PRAGUE (AP) ― The end of Czechoslovakia’s totalitarian regime was called the Velvet Revolution because of how smooth the transition seemed: Communism dead in a matter of weeks, without a shot fired. But for Vaclav Havel, it was a moment he helped pay for with decades of suffering and struggle.The dissident playwright spent years in jail but never lost his defiance, or his eloquence, and the government’s attempts to crush his will ended up expanding his influence. He became a source of inspiratio
Iran TV shows suspected US spy 'confessing'

Dec 19, 2011

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) _ Iran's state TV broadcast video of a young man Sunday it claimed was a CIA spy who sought to infiltrate Iran's secret services.The TV identified the man, apparently in his late 20s, as Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an American-Iranian who received special training and served at U.S. mili
Pope urges dignity in emotional visit to prison

Dec 19, 2011

ROME (AP) _ Pope Benedict XVI made an emotional visit Sunday to Rome's main prison, meeting with detainees, denouncing prison overcrowding and calling for greater dignity for inmates everywhere.Benedict spent over an hour at Rome's Rebibbia prison, fielding questions from a half-dozen inmates who sp
Last troops exit Iraq in subdued end to 9-year war

Dec 19, 2011

AT THE IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER (AP) _ Outside it was pitch dark. The six American soldiers couldn't see much of the desert landscape streaming by outside the small windows of their armored vehicle. They were hushed and exhausted from an all-night drive _ part of the last convoy of U.S. troops to leave Ir
Havel, Czech playwright and president, has died

Dec 18, 2011

In this Oct. 15, 2009 file photo former Czech President Vaclav Havel is seen during a press conference on occasion of the 20th anniversary of the changes in Czechoslovakia and the fall of the Iron Curtain in Prague. Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring d
Yemen: 4 soldiers killed in clashes with militants

Dec 18, 2011

SANAA, Yemen (AP) _ Four Yemeni soldiers and two al-Qaida-linked militants were killed in clashes in the country's south, military and medical officials said Sunday.The fighting took place overnight outside the city of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province that Islamic militants seized earlier thi