The ruling Saenuri Party's presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye said Monday that her late father's controversial political legacies should be judged by history and called on politicians to focus on the future instead of the past.The remarks made on a radio interview are a repeat of her stance that there remains conflicting views on her father's 18-year rule that began with the 1961 military coup.Sup

Venezuelan officials and journalists investigating reports of a possible massacre in a remote indigenous village in the Amazon have found people peacefully cooking plantains over a communal fire, and no sign of any killings.Yanomami Indians in the village of Irotatheri spoke with journalists through a guide, who translated their accounts that there had been no violence. The government flew in jour

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Sunday that it has launched a public offering of $18 billion of its common stock in AIG, the giant insurer bailed out by the U.S. government.The Treasury will also grant a 30-day option to the offering's underwriters to purchase up to an additional $2.7 billion of AIG common stock to cover any over-allotments.AIG intends to buy up to $5 billion of common stoc

South Korea's suicide rate was again the highest among the nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), coming in 2.6 times higher than the OECD average, a government report showed Sunday. An average of 33.5 people per 100,000 took their own lives in South Korea in 2010, up from 28.4 in 2009, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a report, citing the OECD Healt

Iraq’s fugitive Sunni vice president was sentenced Sunday to death by hanging on charges he masterminded death squads against rivals in a terror trial that has fueled sectarian tensions in the country. Underscoring the instability, insurgents unleashed an onslaught of bombings and shootings across Iraq, killing at least 92 people in one of the deadliest days this year.It’s unlikely that the attack

Park rangers returned to a glacier on Mount Rainier Saturday to search for a fourth victim of a series of winter storms, a day after recovering what they presume to be the second and third bodies.The climbers _ two parties of two _ vanished during unrelenting storms on the 4,392-meter volcano in mid-January. The summer snowmelt last month revealed one of the bodies not far from the climbing route

A woman at a Virginia flea market paid less than $60 for a box containing a painting that may be the work of French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.The painting is believed to be Renoir's "Paysage Bords de Seine," a 5.5-by-9-inch pastel river scene. The work has been valued at between $75,000 and $100,000, The New York Times reported.The owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, brought the painting to

China's consumer price inflation accelerated slightly in August amid higher costs for food, official data showed Sunday, but producer prices continued to fall amid the country's slowing economic growth.Consumer prices rose 2.0 percent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said, as food prices increased 3.4 percent. Inflation stood at 1.8 percent in July.Producer prices -- which measure c

South Korea's national debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio fell to one of the lowest numbers among major economies in 2011, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Sunday.As of the end of 2011, the country's debt to GDP ratio came to 33.6 percent, down 1 percentage point from a year earlier.The figure is the fourth lowest among the 34 member countries of the OE

Kim Ki-duk, the winner of the Golden Lion award at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, is a self-made man who started as a non-mainstream outsider but clinched top honors as a movie director.Having never studied film at school, the eccentric director built his own movie world turning his own life philosophy into visual poetry based on inborn artistic talent.He was born in Bonghwa, North G

In a new video, members of punk band Pussy Riot thank pop star Madonna for her support and burn President Vladimir Putin's portrait for what they call his suppression of feminists, sexual minorities and opposition.Three band members are serving two-year jail sentences received in August for their ``punk prayer'' at Russia's grandest cathedral, in which they asked the Virgin Mary to deliver Russia