The Korea Herald

Spain P.M. to call early general elections

MADRID (AP) ― Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Friday announced early general elections in November, scheduling the race four months earlier than anticipated to give his Socialist Party a better chance to stay in power amid growing outrage over the nation’s economic woes.Zapatero set the election date for Nov. 20 even though he was not required to call elections until March a

July 31, 2011

Iraq deadlier now than a year ago: U.S. report

Recent deaths, attacks by militias cast doubts as Baghdad prepares to stand aloneBAGHDAD (AP) ― Frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago, a U.S. government watchdog concludes in a report released Saturday.The findings come during what U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart

July 31, 2011

Iraq deadlier now than a year ago: U.S. report

Cheers to screams as jet from NY crashes in Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) -- Flight 523 from New York had just touched down and passengers were applauding the pilot's landing in the South American country Saturday when something suddenly went wrong.The Boeing 737-800 slid off the end of a rainy runway, crashed through a chain-link fence and broke in half just short of a deep ravine. Yet all 163 people on board survived.Officials were starting to

July 31, 2011

Cheers to screams as jet from NY crashes in Guyana

Late attempt at debt-limit deal to avert default

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House and Republican congressional leaders made significant progress late Saturday toward a deal to avert a government default threatened for early next week, according to officials familiar with the talks.Under the plan, the nation's debt limit would rise in two steps by about $2.4 trillion and spending would be cut by a slightly larger amount, the officials said. The

July 31, 2011

4 killed in explosion as rival workers rumble in China

Four people were killed and 16 others injured during a fight between two groups of workers after one faction detonated explosives in northwestern Gansu Province on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.The blast occurred at around 2:30 p.m. near a railway tunnel at a construction site in the Wudu District of the city of Longnan. Workers from the Wuguan highway construction crew, a section of the Lan

July 31, 2011

Seven killed in knife attack in China's Xinjiang

BEIJING (AFP) - Knife-wielding attackers in China's ethnically-tense Xinjiang stabbed to death seven people and injured 28 others in a rampage, authorities said Sunday, in the region's latest bout of unrest.One of the attackers was later killed in the violence that erupted Saturday night in Kashgar city -- the second attack this month in Xinjiang, where the mainly Muslim Uighur minority has long s

July 31, 2011

Seven killed in knife attack in China's Xinjiang

18 dead, 20 missing in Ukraine mine tragedies

LUGANSK, Ukraine, July 29, 2011 (AFP) - Eighteen miners died and another 20 were missing Friday in two separate accidents at coal mines in the east of Ukraine, an industrial region notorious for its mining safety record.At least 16 miners were killed instantly as a result of an explosion at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya coal mine in the eastern Lugansk region early Friday, the emergencies ministry

July 29, 2011

China to increase compensation for train crash victims

HONG KONG, July 29 (Yonhap) -- China will increase compensation for each victim of the recent high-speed train crash in an attempt to soothe the pain of the bereaved families, a state-run news outlet said Friday.The train crash took place late Saturday near the city of Wenzhou in East Zhejiang Province when a high-speed train rear-ended another train, leaving at least 40 people dead and 192 others

July 29, 2011

New Peru president: The poor are my priority

LIMA (AP) ― Ollanta Humala, the leftist military man who won Peru’s presidency after abandoning a radical platform, promised in his inaugural address Thursday to make his priority the one in three Peruvians still mired in poverty.The 49-year-old former army lieutenant colonel charted a plan for spreading the wealth from Peru’s mineral boom beyond Lima, where it has been concentrated among a small

July 29, 2011

New Peru president: The poor are my priority

Libyan rebels say military chief killed

July 29, 2011

Bong to direct short film on Japanese earthquake

Bong Joon-ho, the director and screenwriter of hit films, “The Host” and “Memories of Murder,” will direct a short film on the tragic March earthquake in Japan, according to reports.Bong Joon-ho (Korea Herald file photo)The South Korean director is one of 60 film directors expected to join in an omnibus movie project aimed at paying respects to quake victims. Among the 60 directors, 40 are Japanes

July 29, 2011

Bong to direct short film on Japanese earthquake

U.S. ambassador reunites with former student after 35 years

U.S. Ambassador Kathleen Stephens said Thursday that she was recently reunited with one of the students she taught in the 1970s as a Peace Corps volunteer, describing the meeting as another reminder of her “unbreakable” ties with South Korea. Kathleen StephensThe meeting between Stephens and the student, Lee Chul-won, who becomes a colonel in the South Korean Army, took place after Lee’s wife spo

July 28, 2011

U.S. ambassador reunites with former student after 35 years

U.S. Senate confirms Locke as ambassador to Beijing

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke won unanimous Senate confirmation Wednesday as ambassador to Beijing, becoming the first Chinese American to hold the prestigious and difficult diplomatic post.Locke, whose grandfather came from China to the United States on a steamboat, promised during his smooth confirmation hearings to be a forceful advocate for human rights and for U

July 28, 2011

China defends carrier plans amid neighbors’ concern

July 28, 2011

Murder of mayor deals new setback to Karzai

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) ― An assassin struck at the heart of President Hamid Karzai’s political machine in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing the mayor of Kandahar with an exploding turban and deepening a power vacuum in the Taliban’s main stronghold.The slaying of Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi was the third killing of a Karzai associate in a little more than two weeks. The attacks have jeopa

July 28, 2011

Murder of mayor deals new setback to Karzai

‘Putin considers Kremlin return’

July 28, 2011

Norway agrees security review after killings

July 28, 2011

China says equipment flaws caused train crash

BEIJING (AP) -- Design flaws in signal equipment and human error caused last weekend's high-speed train crash in China that killed at least 39 people, a railway official said Thursday.The preliminary finding comes in the face of public anger about the government's handling of the accident near Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. Relatives of the victims in Saturday's train crash talk to the media as the

July 28, 2011

China says equipment flaws caused train crash

Man charged of sexual assault of 93-year-old

An American nursing assistant had been charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault of a 93-year-old patient suffering from dementia.Robert Phelan Jr., 56, was allegedly witnessed by another staff member while having inappropriate contact with the victim at Lexington Health Care, Illinois. Phelan had been working at the facility for less than two weeks.Aggravated criminal sexual assault is refe

July 28, 2011

Man charged of sexual assault of abusing 93 years-old

An American nursing assistant had been charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault of a 93-year-old patient suffering from dementia.Robert Phelan Jr., 56, was allegedly witnessed by another staff member while having inappropriate contact with the victim at Lexington Health Care, Illinois. Phelan had been working at the facility for less than two weeks.Aggravated criminal sexual assault is refe

July 28, 2011