Most Popular
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Ex-presidential official’s leaked phone call rattles conservative bloc
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Man escapes DUI charges by downing bottle of soju while pulled over
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Pay debate plagues foreign nanny pilot
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K-pop star lip-syncing controversy flares up again
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35% of S. Koreans view unification 'unnecessary'
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Slew of top K-pop stars ready to return from military
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S. Korea, US clinch 2026-30 defense cost-sharing deal in pre-election push
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[Reporter’s Notebook] Was Netflix film opening BIFF really a bad thing?
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N. Korean leader's sister derides Seoul's Hyunmoo-5 missile as 'useless'
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Controversial cult leader’s sentence reduced to 17 years
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U.S. weighs talk of Syria dumping chemical weapons
A possible diplomatic solution to avoid a U.S. military strike arose Monday when Syria swiftly welcomed a suggestion to turn over all of its chemical weapons for destruction under international control. President Barack Obama said the proposal could be “potentially a significant breakthrough” but he remained skeptical that Syria would follow through.The White House pressed ahead with efforts to persuade Congress to authorize a military strike, and Obama said the day's developments were doubtless
Sept. 10, 2013
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Center-right bloc takes power in Norway
Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg _ nicknamed “Iron Erna” _ will become Norway's new prime minister as the leader of a center-right coalition government likely including an anti-immigration party. Preliminary results from the oil-rich Nordic country's parliamentary elections shows the Conservative Party got 26.8 percent of votes, the best result for the party in 28 years. Solberg, who will be Norway's second female prime minister after Gro Harlem Brundtland, thanked the voters Monday for a
Sept. 10, 2013
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Thousands gather in Moscow as opposition leader demands vote recount
Several thousand supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny rallied Monday in central Moscow as he disputed the results of mayoral polls in which he narrowly failed to push a Kremlin ally into a run-off, claiming fraud.Around 10,000 people gathered for a peaceful rally in the city centre after the Moscow election commission released the final tally showing that an ally of President Vladimir Putin, incumbent mayor Sergei Sobyanin, had scraped through in the first round with 51.3 perce
Sept. 10, 2013
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Official: At least 44 dead in Guatemala bus crash
An overcrowded bus plunged into a deep river canyon in northwestern Guatemala on Monday, killing at least 44 people commuting to the capital, officials said.Grieving families gathered outside a recreation center near the accident site where authorities set up an improvised morgue to identify the bodies of the passengers, including children and at least three babies. The spokesman for the volunteer fire department, Mario Cruz, said 46 people were taken to regional hospitals for treatment of injur
Sept. 10, 2013
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Filipino rebels storm villages, take hostages
MANILA, Philippines (AP) _ About 200 Muslim rebels were holding nearly 300 people hostage Monday after clashing with government troops and rampaging through coastal communities in the southern Philippines, leaving at least eight people dead, officials said. The fighting occurred after troops backed by tanks blocked the Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas _ armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers _ from marching into Zamboanga city, a major port city, to raise their flag at cit
Sept. 9, 2013
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Russian diplomat shot dead in Abkhazia
TBILISI (AFP) - Unknown assailants on Monday shot dead a Russian diplomat in the capital of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, also seriously injuring his wife, authorities in the separatist territory said. "First secretary at the embassy of the Russian Federation in Abkhazia, Dmitry Vishernev, was murdered in a terrible criminal attack in Sukhumi," the Russian-backed territory's foreign ministry said in a statement. "His spouse was badly wounded," the statement said, without givin
Sept. 9, 2013
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Multi-billion-dollar charges linked to disgraced Chinese rail chief: report
BEIJING (AFP) ― A businesswoman linked to China’s disgraced railway minister faces charges of illegal business activities worth 180 billion yuan ($29 billion), state-run media said Monday, indicating far vaster industry corruption than previously revealed.Ding Shumiao will face trial in Beijing for bribery and illegal business activities after she “intervened in bidding for dozens of railway projects,” the China Daily reported, citing prosecutors. The scale of the charges is larger than anything
Sept. 9, 2013
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Pakistani president steps down as his term ends
ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stepped down Sunday at the end of his five-year term, becoming the first democratically elected president in the country’s history to complete his full term in office. At a ceremony at the presidency shown live on state television, an honor guard bid farewell to a smiling Zardari. His successor, Mamnoon Hussain, is scheduled to be sworn in Monday. Zardari rose to power after the assassination of his wife, two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutt
Sept. 9, 2013
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Muslim rebel attack shuts down Philippine city
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) ― An attack by dozens of Muslim rebels shut down the major southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga on Monday, the mayor and military officials said.Followers of separatist leader Nur Misuari clashed with soldiers as Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar ordered all schools and offices to remain closed.“Their target is the City Hall. They want to raise their flag of independence at city hall,” she told radio station DZBB.She said a district official had told her members o
Sept. 9, 2013
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Israelis, Palestinians remain steadfast on peace talks: Kerry
LONDON (AFP) ― U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in London on Sunday, having earlier insisted that Israelis and Palestinians were determined to pursue direct peace talks.Kerry and Abbas, who have met regularly over the last six months, kicked off their latest talks at 7:30 p.m.The pair laughed and joked in the Queen Elizabeth room of London‘s Ritz Carlton hotel before heading off for their closed-door meeting. No details were due to be released to the pres
Sept. 9, 2013
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Obama gears for all-out push on Syria
WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Washington deepened its diplomatic offensive at home and abroad Sunday as President Barack Obama braced for a key week in his push to persuade skeptical Americans to back strikes against the Syrian regime.Lawmakers returning Monday from their summer break are set to begin debate on whether to approve limited U.S. military action in Syria, with a Senate vote possibly coming as early as Wednesday.Obama will blitz U.S. networks on Monday evening before addressing the American peo
Sept. 9, 2013
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Thousands protest Romania gold mine plans
BUCHAREST (AFP) ― More than 15,000 Romanians took to the streets for the eighth straight day Sunday to protest a Canadian company’s plans to open Europe’s largest gold mine in a picturesque Transylvanian village.Canadian firm Gabriel Resources hopes to extract 300 tons of gold in Rosia Montana in the Carpathian mountains with mining techniques requiring the use of thousands of tons of cyanide.In Bucharest, around 8,000 people marched or rode their bikes to the government headquarters chanting “U
Sept. 9, 2013
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Forty years after Pinochet coup, thousands march for rights in Chile
SANTIAGO (AFP) ― Thousands of Chileans marched for human rights Sunday on the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power.Some of the 60,000 carried pictures of their kin who were abducted or killed by the state and held signs with slogans such as “40 years after the coup, nobody and no one has been forgotten.” After a two-hour march, one group of hooded demonstrators set up barricades and squared off with police, some of whom were hit with stones and sticks. Pol
Sept. 9, 2013
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Mexican leader pushes new reform despite protests
MEXICO CITY (AFP) ― Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto pressed on with his reform agenda on Sunday, unveiling a tax system overhaul after tens of thousands of people rallied against his policies.Changing the tax code, aimed at boosting the government’s coffers, is among a series of reforms championed by Pena Nieto, along with a controversial plan to open the oil sector to foreign investment.The latest reform would raise taxes on higher earners, levy a capital gains charge and even impose a spe
Sept. 9, 2013
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Putin ally wins tight Moscow elections
MOSCOW (AFP) ― Moscow’s pro-Kremlin mayor was set to win tight elections Sunday in the Russian capital, just escaping a second-round runoff after a strong challenge from protest leader Alexei Navalny, who denounced the results as falsified.Initial results showed that Sergei Sobyanin, a leading ally of President Vladimir Putin, would narrowly win in the first round with just over half the vote after Navalny unexpectedly picked up over a quarter of the ballots.In a nationwide day of local polls th
Sept. 9, 2013
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E-cigarettes as effective as patches to stop smoking
PARIS (AFP) ― Tobacco-free electronic cigarettes are as effective as nicotine patches in weaning smokers off their habit, but both techniques are only modestly successful, a study said on Saturday.It is the first trial to compare the increasingly popular “e-cigarette” ― a plastic tube which heats a liquid to an inhalable vapour ― against nicotine patches as an anti-smoking aid.Researchers in Auckland, New Zealand, recruited 657 smokers who wanted to quit, and assigned them randomly to three grou
Sept. 9, 2013
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Scientists launch freeze-dried animal sperm bank
TOKYO (AFP) ― Japanese scientists have launched a sperm bank for endangered animals that uses freeze-drying technology they hope could one day help humans recreate animal populations on other planets, the chief researcher said Friday.The team at Kyoto University‘s Institute of Laboratory Animals Graduate School of Medicine successfully preserved sperm taken from two endangered primates and a type of giraffe, associate professor Takehito Kaneko said.They mixed the sperm with special preservation
Sept. 9, 2013
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Philippine senate to expand probe of pork scam
Philippine Sen. Francis Escudero has raised the possibility that the heads of the government agencies that allowed their offices to be used as conduits for pork barrel to questionable nongovernment organizations will be held liable even if the allocations were endorsed by lawmakers.Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee, Escudero said he expected the panel to expand its inquiry to include not just the eight NGOs controlled by Janet Lim-Napoles identifi
Sept. 9, 2013
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More Koreans choose Laos for healing, retirement
The air is redolent of mouthwatering grilled meat at Hwang Hye-hun’s residence at Naxay village in Sisattanak district. He is hosting a dinner party for the opening of his consultation clinic, KMC Center, with a few of his Korean friends ― volunteer nurses, doctors, professors and businessmen here. Without any formal ceremony, everyone just begins eating kimchi, kimbap, grilled pork and chicken, fresh leafy vegetables and other Korean dishes, and drink soju and Beerlao. Some of Hwang’s visitors
Sept. 9, 2013
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Xi proposes ‘new Silk Road’ with Central Asia
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday proposed that China and Central Asian countries build an “economic belt along the Silk Road,” a trans-Eurasian project spanning from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea.Xi made the official suggestion for the first time during a speech on China’s Central Asia strategy at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan.The proposed economic belt is inhabited by “close to 3 billion people and represents the biggest market in the world with unparalleled potentia
Sept. 9, 2013