The Korea Herald

Mandela hospitalized for medical check-up: official

Mar 10, 2013

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ― Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid leader, was admitted to a hospital on Saturday for a scheduled medical check-up and doctors say there is no cause for “alarm,’’ the president’s office said. Officials have used similarly soothing language to explain previous hospital stays for 94-year-old Mandela, but in those cases he later turned out to have more serious conditions. The intense privacy surrounding the health of Mandela reflects in part th
Naked Peruvian cyclists protest for bike-friendly streets

Mar 10, 2013

Dozens of naked and half-naked cyclists rolled through Lima Saturday to press for more bike-friendly streets.A few of the protesters stripped down completely for the 10-kilometer (six-mile) ride through Peru‘s capital.The more modest peddlers wore underwear, while some wore masks of cartoon characters like Batman. Some riders also brought along a breed of hairless Peruvian dog.The protesters were demanding bike lanes and better traffic lighting.They said they also were trying to raise awareness
Bali mulls 'no sex' signs after couple caught in temple

Mar 10, 2013

Officials on the Indonesian island of Bali are considering putting up "no sex" signs at Hindu temples after a lusty Estonian couple were caught in the act.Police took the pair in for questioning after they were found by youth leaders who had gone to check up on repairs at the temple in the village of Saraseda."They said they really did not know that sex at temples was prohibited in Bali, so we just let them go and left it up to the village heads to decide how to handle the case," Gianyar distric
Teen finds buried treasure in Kingston

Mar 10, 2013

A Jamaican teenager said he uncovered buried treasure dating back to the 1860s while working to clear a vacant lot in Kingston.Michael Taylor, 19, was using a sledge hammer to demolish a concrete column in the lot Wednesday discover what appeared to be a vault, he told The Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica.Taylor called over fellow workers who helped him open the vault. Inside it, they found a vial containing silver coins, a medallion and a parchment paper."We tried to take up the paper but it just cru
Nicolas Maduro sworn in as Venezuelan president

Mar 9, 2013

Late President Hugo Chavez designated Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. Maduro had been Chavez's vice president.The country's 1999 constitution says the National Assembly speaker becomes interim president in the event of a president-elect's death or inability to be sworn in. The constitution also says a presidential election should be called within 30 days.Maduro has been picked as the presidential candidate of Chavez's socialist party.Opposition leader Angel Medina said
Texas couple accused of trafficking teen

Mar 8, 2013

A Fort Worth, Texas, couple are facing charges for allegedly prostituting a 15-year-old girl, police said.Deundrea R. Miller, 27, and Brittanie S. Brattain, 21, of Saginaw, allegedly recruited the teen, called "Jewel" in a federal criminal complaint against them, and forced her into prostitution from September until January, when the teen ran away, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported.The suspects allegedly met Jewel in September, took suggestive pictures of her and placed advertisement
U.N. sanctions may play into North Korean propaganda

Mar 8, 2013

Seven years of U.N. sanctions against North Korea have done nothing to derail Pyongyang's drive for a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States. They may have even bolstered the Kim family by giving their propaganda maestros ammunition to whip up anti-U.S. sentiment and direct attention away from government failures. In the wake of fresh U.N. sanctions leveled at North Korea on Thursday for its latest nuclear test, the question is: Will this time be different?Since 2006, North Korea ha
Bin Laden spokesman caught

Mar 8, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Osama bin Laden’s spokesman and son-in-law has been captured by the United States, officials said Thursday, in what a senior congressman called a “very significant victory’’ in the fight against al-Qaida.Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is expected to be in U.S. federal court in New York on Friday in an initial hearing to face terror charges, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The case marks a
Chavez body to go on permanent display

Mar 8, 2013

CARACAS (AP) ― Hugo Chavez’s body will be preserved and forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace from which he ruled for 14 years, his successor announced Thursday in a Caribbean version of the treatment given Communist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh.Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s acting head of state, said Chavez would first lie in state for “at least” seven more days at the museum, which will eventuall
Mexico arrests 7th suspect, a teen, in Acapulco rape

Mar 8, 2013

A teenager was arrested for the rape of six Spanish tourists last month in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco, the Guerrero state attorney said Thursday.The latest arrest in the grisly crime puts the final suspect in the case behind bars, said the southwestern state's attorney general Martha Elva Garzon.She declined to give the suspect's name or age, but said he was being held at a special center for teenagers in Chilpancingo, the state capital.In addition to rape, he may be charged with theft
A baby girl for William and Kate?

Mar 8, 2013

Prince William's wife Catherine is normally careful to protect her privacy, so Britain's newspapers seized Wednesday on what appeared to be a rare slip of the tongue suggesting that her unborn baby is a girl.The Duchess of Cambridge, 31, was overheard telling a well-wisher offering a gift for the new royal heir that she would take it "for my d...", before stopping herself, according to media reports.Sandra Cook, 67, said the exchange took place during Kate's visit to the northeastern English por
Book returned to library after 50 years

Mar 8, 2013

A Scottish man was spared a $4,067 fine when he returned a library book overdue for 50 years during an amnesty period.David Black, 60, said he borrowed the art book about Spanish painter Goya in September 1962 and it was overdue for 18,417 days, amassing a fine of $4,067 that was dismissed when he returned it to the Edinburgh Fine Art Library during an amnesty week, The Scottish Sun reported Thursday."It feels good to have returned it. I can now sleep a little more soundly at night," Black said.
After delay, Senate confirms Brennan for CIA

Mar 8, 2013

The Senate confirmed John Brennan to be CIA director Thursday after the Obama administration bowed to demands from Republicans blocking the nomination and stated explicitly there are limits on the president's power to use drones against U.S. terror suspects on American soil.The vote was 63-34 and came just hours after Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, held the floor past midnight in an old-style filibuster of the nomination to extract an answer from t
Egyptian court suspends parliamentary elections

Mar 7, 2013

CAIRO (AP) ― An Egyptian court Wednesday ordered the suspension of parliamentary elections scheduled to begin in April, opening a legal battle likely to delay the vote and deepening the political crisis between the Islamist president and his opponents that has polarized the nation for months. The new confusion surrounding the election underlined the paralysis gripping Egypt, between political deadlock, infighting among state institutions, a faltering economy and a wave of protests, strikes and c
Cardinals impose media blackout ahead of conclave

Mar 7, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) ― In the end, American-style transparency was no match for the Vatican’s obsession with secrecy. Cardinals attending closed-door discussions ahead of the conclave to elect the next pope imposed a media blackout on Wednesday, forcing the cancellation of the popular daily press briefings by U.S. cardinals that had provided crucial insights into the deliberations. The official reason for the blackout was that some details of the secret discussions about the problems in the church