The Korea Herald

Iran to question president on fraud

TEHRAN (AP) ― Iran’s parliament is set to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning over an economic scandal and his polices after the required number of lawmakers signed a petition Sunday, the latest salvo in a long battle between the president and his rivals.Ahmadinejad would be the first president to be hauled before the Iranian parliament, a serious blow to his standing in the conflict involving the president, lawmakers and Iran’s powerful clerics.At least 73 lawmakers signed the

Oct. 31, 2011

Kyrgyz premier cruises to presidency in disputed poll

BISHKEK (AFP) ― Kyrgyzstan’s moderate prime minister emerged Monday as the next president of the violence-scarred nation after a decisive election victory, but his vanquished rivals claimed the ballot was rigged.Almazbek Atambayev, a close ally of outgoing President Roza Otunbayeva who took power after a 2010 uprising ousted the regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, won 63 percent of the vote in Sunday’s polls, the central election commission said.The crushing victory over his two nationalist rivals ― wh

Oct. 31, 2011

Kyrgyz premier cruises to presidency in disputed poll

Global warming is real: former skeptic

WASHINGTON (AP) ― A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: Temperatures really are rising rapidly.The study of the world’s surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global warming deniers. He pursued long-held skeptic theories in analyzing the data. He was spurred to action because of “Climategate,” a British scan

Oct. 31, 2011

Britain will allow armed guards to combat piracy

LONDON (AP) ― Ships sailing under Britain’s flag will be permitted to carry armed guards on some perilous routes to combat the threat from pirates, the prime minister said Sunday.David Cameron said Britain was reversing its opposition to the use of weapons aboard ships, amid mounting concern about the risks of vessels and crew being seized by pirates ― particularly off Somalia’s coast.Cameron’s office said the use of weapons on British-flagged ships is banned under firearms laws, but that new ru

Oct. 31, 2011

‘30 years till Japan can close nuke plant’

TOKYO (AP) ― A Japanese government panel says it will take at least 30 years to safely close the tsunami-hobbled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, even though the facility is leaking far less radiation than before and is considered relatively stable.The plant, site of the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, was severely damaged by Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami. It suffered power outages, meltdowns and explosions that released radioactive material and forced te

Oct. 31, 2011

China conducts trial flight with first jet biofuel mix

China conducted its first demonstration flight powered partly by a biofuel last week possibly paving the way for future biofuel use on commercial flights in the country.The one-hour trial used 13.1 tons of biofuel blend ― half conventional jet fuel and half China-grown, jatropha-based biofuel ― to power one of four engines on an Air China 747-400 jet.Each of the jet’s other three engines was powered by conventional jet fuel to guarantee safety, said Li Jun, an expert with Air China.The plane too

Oct. 31, 2011

China conducts trial flight with first jet biofuel mix

Conflicting flood info frustrates Thailand’s private sector

The private sector of Thailand has complained that it is confused by inconsistent information from the central government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, saying the political conflict between the two and poor management are making the flood problem worse.BMA officials led by Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra on Oct. 27 met with a number of business representatives as well as the Thai Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was meant to explain the BMA’s measures to drain flood waters

Oct. 31, 2011

Conflicting flood info frustrates Thailand’s private sector

Billionaire battle: Russians take feud to UK court

LONDON (AP) -- They were once said to be like father and son, vacationing, signing deals, and socializing at the Kremlin together. But these days two of Russia's richest men can't stand each other -- and they're trading insults in a spectacularly expensive public feud.At more than $6.5 billion, the

Oct. 31, 2011

Cheers and fears as world population hits 7 billion

MANILA (AFP) - Asia welcomed the world's first symbolic "seven billionth" baby on Monday, but celebrations were tempered by worries over the strain that humanity's population explosion is putting on a fragile planet.The United Nations says that by its best estimates the seven billionth baby will be

Oct. 31, 2011

Cheers and fears as world population hits 7 billion

Cain says he opposes abortion without exceptions

ATLANTA (AP) — Republican Herman Cain on Sunday said he opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at stake, contradicting previous statements in which he favored some exceptions.The tough stand that Cain staked out during an interview with CBS' "Face the

Oct. 31, 2011

Cain says he opposes abortion without exceptions

Traffic accident in China sparks violent protest

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Residents of central China have clashed with police, overturning cars, after a drunk police officer killed at least five people in a traffic accident, media reports and a witness said Sunday.The police officer, Wang Yinpeng, lost control of his van and ran into two utility poles in

Oct. 30, 2011

Saudi hard line crown prince may mellow in power

DUBAI (AFP) ― The appointment of conservative Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as heir to the Saudi throne raises concerns he could halt reforms were he to take power, say analysts, who add, however, that he may instead show a softer, more pragmatic side.“He has a strong reputation as an ultra-conservative ― close to religious and reactionary circles,” Gulf specialist Olivier Da Lage told AFP.“He is hostile to Shiites and follows an iron fist policy against any opposition. He also has a tough stance

Oct. 30, 2011

Quran-burning pastor to run for U.S. president

MIAMI (AFP) ― An American evangelical pastor whose church’s burning of a Quran sparked deadly violence in Afghanistan announced on Friday that he plans to run for president in 2012.In a campaign manifesto titled “Stand Up America!” Jones pledged that on entering the White House he would immediately stop government overspending, bring all foreign-based troops home, and deport all illegal immigrants.The mustachioed pastor also vowed to bring down America’s stubbornly high unemployment rate by redu

Oct. 30, 2011

China beefs up anti-terrorism laws

BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s parliament passed legislation Saturday beefing up the nation’s counter-terrorism laws, while also ordering fingerprints to be added to all national identity cards.The two bills passed Saturday by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, were aimed at safeguarding social stability, legislators told journalists.The bill laying out the nation’s legal definition of terrorism clarifies when China’s anti-terrorism forces should act and agai

Oct. 30, 2011

Attack on NATO convoy kills 17 in Afghanistan

KABUL (AP) ― A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus Saturday on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in the south ― attacks that show the resiliency of the insurgency and are

Oct. 30, 2011

Bosnian, Serbian forces raid homes after U.S. embassy attack

GORNJA MAOCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) ― Special police units have raided homes in a Bosnian village linked to the gunman who fired an automatic weapon at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in what authorities called a terrorist attack. The raids came as 17 suspected associates of the shooter, all said to be members of the ultraconservative Wahhabi Muslim sect, were briefly detained in Serbia.A convoy of police vehicles entered the isolated northern village of Gornja Maoca, known to be inhabited by man

Oct. 30, 2011

Bosnian, Serbian forces raid homes after U.S. embassy attack

Left-winger Higgins wins Irish presidency

Poet-human rights activist becomes new leader of struggling stateDUBLIN (AP) ― Michael D. Higgins, a veteran left-wing politician, poet and human rights activist, was declared the winner Saturday of Ireland’s presidential election with nearly 57 percent of votes, and pledged to lift the spirits of a struggling nation.Higgins said he wanted to help revive the public’s faith in politicians at a time when Ireland faces record debts, a property market collapse, 15 percent unemployment and a fourth s

Oct. 30, 2011

Suspected killer tied to other deaths

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Police have linked the man charged with 10 murders in the ``Grim Sleeper'' serial killings to a number of other deaths, a law enforcement official said Friday.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, did not specify how many deaths p

Oct. 30, 2011

Brazil's Silva has cancerous tumor in larynx

SAO PAULO (AP) -- Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will undergo chemotherapy to treat a cancerous tumor in his larynx, doctors said Saturday.The tumor was detected earlier in the day during an examination at Sao Paulo's Sirio Libanes Hospital, the hospital said in a statement, which added

Oct. 30, 2011

Brazil's Silva has cancerous tumor in larynx

Study: Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated

NEW YORK (AP) ― The Fukushima nuclear disaster released twice as much of a dangerous radioactive substance into the atmosphere as Japanese authorities estimated, reaching 40 percent of the total from Chernobyl, a preliminary report says.The estimate of much higher levels of radioactive cesium-137 comes from a worldwide network of sensors. Study author Andreas Stohl of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research says the Japanese government estimate came only from data in Japan, and that would have

Oct. 28, 2011

Study: Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated