The Korea Herald

Muted hopes for major Afghanistan conference

Dec 5, 2011

BONN (AFP) ― A major international conference here Monday will seek a way forward for Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO combat troops in 2014 but the boycott of two crucial players has dampened hopes of success.The one-day gathering brings around 100 national delegations and aid organizations to the former German capital Bonn, 10 years after another meeting here put an interim Afghan government in place after the Taliban’s ouster.“We will not forget Afghanistan after 2014,” German Foreign
U.S. spy drone shot down, Iran claims

Dec 5, 2011

Tehran warns of retaliation against violation of its airspace; Washington denies drone was downedTEHRAN (AP) ― Iran’s armed forces have shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along the country’s eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country’s airspace by American drone aircraft.“An advanced RQ-170 unmanned American spy plan
In Iowa, Gingrich streaks past Romney

Dec 5, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) ― With businessman Herman Cain gone from the Republican presidential race, Newt Gingrich luxuriated in good polling news over the weekend ― two key surveys showing him well ahead of main challenger Mitt Romney in the fast-approaching Iowa caucuses.Voters in the Midwestern state will vote in local caucus meetings on Jan. 3, the first-in-the-nation contests that choose delegates to the Republican national convention next September in Tampa, Florida, that will formally name Presiden
Supermarket boss to run euro member Slovenia

Dec 5, 2011

LJUBLJANA (AFP) ― Fresh from a surprise election victory, Zoran Jankovic aimed Monday to get down to business and turn Slovenia around the same way he once did as boss of the euro member’s largest supermarket chain.But whether the same skills that made Jankovic a millionaire and got him elected twice as Ljubljana’s mayor will enable him to soothe investor concerns about a slowing economy and a growing debt pile is uncertain, analysts said.“Today Jankovic can drink champagne,” Vlado Miheljak, pol
Saudi report claims women at wheel will have sex

Dec 5, 2011

This file image made from video released by Change.org, shows a Saudi Arabian woman driving a car in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP)RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A report given to a high-level advisory group in Saudi Arabia claims that allowing women in the kingdom to drive could encourage premarital
84-year-old says she was strip searched at JFK

Dec 5, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — An 84-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pa
Putin's party losing support in parliamentary vote

Dec 5, 2011

MOSCOW (AP) _ Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party struggled to hang onto its majority in Russia's parliamentary election, results showed Monday, suggesting Russians were wearying of the man who has dominated Russian politics for more than a decade.Rival parties and election monitors said even a re
Herman Cain ends 2012 presidential bid

Dec 4, 2011

ATLANTA (AP) ― A defiant Herman Cain suspended his faltering bid for the Republican presidential nomination Saturday amid a drumbeat of sexual misconduct allegations against him, throwing his staunchly conservative supporters up for grabs with just one month to go before the lead-off caucuses in Iowa.The Georgia businessman condemned the accusations as “false and unproven’’ but said they had been hurtful to his family, particularly his wife, Gloria, and were drowning out his ability to deliver h
Army defectors complicate Syria uprising

Dec 4, 2011

BEIRUT (AP) ― Nearly nine months into the Syrian uprising, many protesters are pinning their hopes on an increasingly bold group of army defectors to give their revolution a fighting chance against President Bashar Assad’s fiercely loyal forces.But as the Free Syrian Army gains power, the defectors could make it harder for the West to give strong diplomatic support to a movement that so far has been largely peaceful. The FSA also could give the regime an excuse to crack down even more strongly,
Sandusky discusses Paterno, case

Dec 4, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said he never spoke with the college’s head football coach Joe Paterno about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday.Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing Dec. 13. A grand jury investigating Sandusky said in a report that some of the allegations occurred in the team showers, including a 2002 all
Arab League agree details on Syrian sanctions

Dec 4, 2011

BEIRUT (AP) ― Violence sweeping across Syria killed 25 people on Saturday, most of them in a battle between troops and a growing force of army defectors who have joined the movement to oust the autocratic president, activists said. The Arab League, meanwhile, agreed on the details of economic and diplomatic sanctions against the regime.The revolt against Bashar Assad’s rule began with peaceful protests in mid-March, triggering a brutal crackdown. The unrest has steadily become bloodier as defect
Russians vote as Putin plans his Kremlin comeback

Dec 4, 2011

MOSCOW (AFP) ― Russians went to the polls Sunday in key parliamentary elections expected to hand victory to Vladimir Putin’s party amid claims of campaign fraud and unprecedented intimidation of observers.The elections to the lower house of parliament, the 450-deputy State Duma, are seen as a key test of Putin’s ability to hold on to power as he prepares to reclaim his old Kremlin job in a March presidential vote amid growing disillusionment over his 11-year rule.The world’s largest country is s
Head to Head: Romney vs Gingrich

Dec 4, 2011

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AP) ― The once-bursting 2012 Republican presidential field is narrowing to a two-man race, and GOP voters have one month before casting the first votes to winnow it to one. Barring a dramatic new turn, their chief options will be the steady but often bland demeanor of Mitt Romney and the idea-a-minute bombast of Newt Gingrich.Herman Cain’s suspension of his campaign Saturday, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s continued struggles to regain traction, have focused the party’s a
Saudi report: Women driving spurs premarital sex

Dec 4, 2011

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- A report given to a high-level advisory group in Saudi Arabia claims that allowing women in the kingdom to drive could encourage premarital sex, a rights activist said Saturday.The ultraconservative stance suggests increasing pressure on King Abdullah to retain the kingd
US investigates modern art forgery: report

Dec 4, 2011

NEW YORK (AFP) - US federal authorities are investigating whether paintings and drawings sold by elite New York art dealers as the work of Modernist masters are in fact fakes, The New York Times reported Saturday.The pieces purported to be by artists like Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock, sold