CHICAGO ― As thparents of 14 children, including six adopted from Africa, Carolyn and Kiel Twietmeyer, of Joliet, Illinois, believe they are doing God’s work.Two of the six children they adopted from Ethiopia suffer from HIV. Bringing them to the U.S. where they could get the medical attention they needed was a matter of life or death.“The worst part of HIV is the stigma,” Carolyn said. “In the U.S., it’s considered a chronic and manageable disease.”But the Twietmeyers and other like-minded larg

A renowned U.S. expert in East Asia affairs said on Wednesday the six-party talks framework is unworkable stressing South Korea and the U.S. should not expect too much of China in resolving North Korean nuclear issues.Balbina Hwang, assistant adjunct professor at Georgetown University, also said that the communist state is unlikely to renounce its nuclear ambitions and will continue to use deceptive means to gain economic concessions at the multilateral denuclearization talks.“We have to underst

TAICHUNG, Taiwan (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s Samsung Lions beat SoftBank Hawks of Japan 5-3 to capture the Asia Series tournament in a battle of league champions.At Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, the Lions, the 2011 champions of the Korea Baseball Organization, overcame an early deficit against the Hawks, the Nippon Professional Baseball champions. Samsung’s starter Jang Won-sam settled down after a shaky start and the bullpen took care of the rest, as the Lions became the first K

Barcelona returns to its winning ways with an easy victory over Rayo VallecanoLONDON (AP) ― An emotional Craig Bellamy set up two goals in his first game following the suicide of friend Gary Speed, helping Liverpool win 2-0 at Chelsea on Tuesday night to advance to the English League Cup semifinals.Bellamy missed Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester City because he was too upset to play following the death of Speed. The Wales manager hanged himself in his garage, a police officer sai

BUSAN ― The world’s largest forum on aid officially opened in Busan on Tuesday with 3,000 participants from governments, parliaments, international organizations and civic groups.Delegates participating in the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, or HLF-4, assessed the progress made since the 2005 Paris Declaration.“We should never stop in our efforts to explore effective aid. And ultimately we need to find ways to turn aid effectiveness into real development. This is exactly what the B

President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday signed a package of bills needed to implement the Korea-U.S. free trade pact, finalizing the ratification procedures and bringing the deal closer to effectuation early next year.During a Cabinet meeting he presided over, Lee put his signatures on 14 related bills concerning copyrights, patents, customs, trade secret protection and other domestic rules to ensure the smooth implementation of the pact.The signing came a week after the National Assembly passed the

Hans Blix, former director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the U.S. and South Korea’s precondition for North Korea to halt uranium enrichment could make it more difficult to start six-party negotiations.Blix visited Korea as a member of an eminent persons’ group, or EPG, to provide advice to President Lee Myung-bak for when South Korea hosts the Nuclear Security Summit in March, next year. The group members held their first meeting in Seoul on Tuesday“The status of North

Global leaders are being urged to increase investment in agriculture in developing countries at the high-level aid forum in Busan this week by a UN agency. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, 75 percent of the world’s poorest people ― a total of 1.4 billion― live in rural areas, depending on agriculture for their livelihoods. “About two billion people live and work on the world’s 500 million smallholder farms. Most survive on less than $2 a day,” IFAD Vice President

African governments need to be given greater ability to support development in the region, especially in tough economic times where every dollar counts, said Tony Blair in Busan on Tuesday.Speaking at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, the former British prime minister said assistance needs to help poor countries stand on their own rather than depend on the wealthy. At a panel discussion titled “Taking Charge Not Taking Charity: How Africa Can Lead Its Development,” Blair stressed th

Gender issues to be discussed in Wednesday’s special session with ClintonBUSAN ― Delegates actively participated in thematic sessions and side events on the first day of the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan on Tuesday. One of the major talks addressed how aid ownership and accountability should be made a political priority to ensure partner government executives take full responsibility in implementation of national development strategies.“We should lift this issue to the po