The Korea Herald

Nigeria fuel strike ends with soldiers in streets

LAGOS (AP) ― Labor unions ended a crippling nationwide strike in Nigeria after the country’s president partially restored subsidies that keep gasoline prices low, though it took soldiers deployed in the streets to stop demonstrations in Africa’s most populous nation.Union leaders claimed a victory on Monday for labor, saying this would allow its leaders to guide the country’s policy on fuel subsidies in the future. But the newly agreed price of about $2.27 a gallon is still more expensive than t

Jan. 17, 2012

Kazakh ruling party’s win tempered by criticism

ASTANA (AP) ― Weekend elections have determined that Kazakhstan’s parliament is no longer a one-party chamber, but international observers say the vote failed to meet democratic standards.Authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev had called the snap election in November, so Kazakhstan could proceed further along the path of democracy, he said.According to preliminary results announced Monday, Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party won 80.7 percent of the vote, with two other parties achieving slightly m

Jan. 17, 2012

Environmental fears mount on Italian cruise wreck

ROME (AP) ― Italy’s cruise liner tragedy turned into an environmental crisis Monday, as rough seas battering the stricken mega-ship raised fears that fuel might leak into pristine waters off Tuscany that are part of a protected sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.The ship’s Italian operator accused the jailed captain of causing the wreck that left at least six dead and 29 missing, saying he made an “unapproved, unauthorized maneuver” to divert the vessel from its programmed course.Earli

Jan. 17, 2012

Rev. Martin Luther King remembered

WASHINGTON (AP) ― President Barack Obama and his family are marking Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a volunteer service project at a local school.The Obamas joined other volunteers Monday morning at the Browne Education Campus in the District of Columbia.After greeting volunteers, the president and his family helped build bookshelves in the school’s library.This is the third year in a row the Obamas have participated in a service project on King’s holiday.Washington is home to the Martin Luther

Jan. 17, 2012

Republicans assail Romney in debate

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (AP) ― Mitt Romney’s Republican rivals attacked his record as a venture capitalist Monday night in the first of two debates before a pivotal weekend primary in South Carolina, where a Romney victory could seal his lock on the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in the November general election.The president ― weighed down by a struggling American economy ― is seen as vulnerable in his quest for a second White House term. Relentlessly high unempl

Jan. 17, 2012

‘ My husband gave his life for me ’: Italy ship survivor

Night view on Jan. 16 of the cruise liner Costa Concordia aground in front of the harbour of Isola del Giglio after hitting underwater rocks on Jan. 13. (AFP-Yonhap News)TOULOUSE, France (AFP) - The widow of a Frenchman who died on the Costa Concordia luxury liner gave a chilling account Monday of h

Jan. 17, 2012

‘ My husband gave his life for me ’: Italy ship survivor

Ireland's former richest person declared bankrupt

DUBLIN (AP) _ A famed entrepreneur who was once rated Ireland's richest person was declared bankrupt Monday as a bank pursues him for debts exceeding (euro) 2.1 billion ($2.7 billion).Lawyers for tycoon Sean Quinn withdrew his opposition to a Republic of Ireland bankruptcy order sought by the former

Jan. 17, 2012

Russian space probe crashes

MOSCOW (AP) ― A Russian space probe designed to boost the nation’s pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars has come down in flames, showering fragments into the south Pacific west of Chile’s coast, officials said.Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth’s orbit, landed in water Sunday 1,250 kilometers west of Wellington Island in Chile’s south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said in a statement carried by the country’s news agencies.The military space t

Jan. 16, 2012

Huntsman to quit U.S. presidential race

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to China who tried to avoid partisan attacks during a presidential campaign that never connected with Republican primary voters, will withdraw Monday from the race for the nomination, campaign officials told the Associated Press on Sunday.Huntsman will endorse front-runner Mitt Romney at an event in South Carolina, where the next primary will be held, the officials said. Huntsman believes Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack

Jan. 16, 2012

Cruise captain blasted as more bodies are found

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) ― Maritime authorities, passengers and mounting evidence pointed Sunday toward the captain of a cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, amid accusations that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated and was showing off when he steered the vessel far too close to shore.Divers searching the murky depths of the partially submerged Costa Concordia found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, bringing the confirmed death to

Jan. 16, 2012

Cruise captain blasted as more bodies are found

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming enters politics

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― Not content with owning a basketball team, studying business and making wine, China’s former NBA superstar Yao Ming has now become the youngest ― and tallest ― legislative advisor in Shanghai.The 31-year-old was formally accepted as a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature at the weekend ― a position that entitles him to make proposals for possible new laws ― the official China Daily reported.A photograph printed by the newspaper shows the 2.29-meter Yao towering a

Jan. 16, 2012

‘Hillary’s lawyer’ proud of Korea

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― Working as the chief legal adviser of the U.S. State Department, Harold Hongju Koh calls Secretary of State Hillary Clinton his “client,” rather than the boss.Koh, a prominent Korean-American expert on international law, starts his working day by meeting with Clinton. “I am the legal adviser of the U.S. Department of State, which means that I am a lawyer for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and I do the international law work for the U.S. Department of State. I super

Jan. 16, 2012

S. Korean couple recalls 30 hours trapped in wrecked ship

A South Korean honeymoon couple who survived a fatal cruise ship accident in Italy on Monday recounted their panic-filled 30 hours spent trapped inside the darkened and upended ship. (Yonhap News)"We slipped into the corridor as water began to rise in our cabin. We then shouted ourselves hoarse

Jan. 16, 2012

S. Korean couple recalls 30 hours trapped in wrecked ship

Cruise company: Captain made ‘errors in judgment’

The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP) People stop and look the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side, after it ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Ja

Jan. 16, 2012

Cruise company: Captain made ‘errors in judgment’

Perry: Marines in video are 'kids,' not criminals

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of "over-the-top rhetoric" and "disdain for the military" in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.Perry's comments put him at o

Jan. 16, 2012

Russian space probe crashes into Pacific

MOSCOW (AP) _ A Russian space probe designed to boost the nation's pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars came down in flames Sunday, showering fragments into the south Pacific west of Chile's coast, officials said.Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth's orbit, landed in

Jan. 16, 2012

Ship aground off Italy; 3 bodies found

PORTO SANTO STEFANO, Italy (AP) -- Survivors who escaped a luxury cruise liner that ran aground and tipped over off Italy’s coast recounted a chaotic and terrifying evacuation through the ship’s upended hallways on Saturday, as divers searched the submerged part for any people still unaccounted for in the confusion.Three bodies were recovered from the sea after the Costa Concordia with 4,234 people aboard ran aground hundreds of meters off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late

Jan. 15, 2012

Egypt’s ElBaradei ends presidential bid

CAIRO (AP) ― Egypt’s reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei withdrew from the presidential race Saturday, saying a fair election is impossible under the military’s grip nearly a year after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Many fear that the ruling generals will push through a candidate of their own to preserve their power.The Nobel Peace laureate’s pullout is a slap to the military and the credibility of its plans for Egypt’s transition. He was seen as the most pro-revolution of the candidates and the strongest

Jan. 15, 2012

Bomb kills at least 53 pilgrims in Iraq

ZUBAIR, Iraq (AP) ― A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the American military withdrawal.Fears of more bloodshed have risen in recent weeks, with the U.S. no longer enjoying the leverage it once had to encourage the two sides to work together to rein in extremists. Most of the latest attacks appear

Jan. 15, 2012

Guatemala president vows tough actions against crime

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) ― Retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina was sworn in as president of Guatemala on Saturday, calling on the United States and Mexico to help him fight a wave of drug trafficking and violence that has overwhelmed the Central American country.Perez won over voters by pledging to crush criminality with an “iron fist.” Mexican drug cartels have seized large swatches of territory in Guatemala, which has one of the world’s highest homicide rates.Perez, 61, is the first military officer ele

Jan. 15, 2012

Guatemala president vows tough actions against crime