The Korea Herald

Fire leaves cruise ship adrift off Seychelles

NAIROBI (AP) ― An Italian cruise liner carrying more than 1,000 people was adrift without power in the pirate-infested Indian Ocean after a fire erupted in its generator room. The blaze, which was extinguished, caused no injuries, officials said.Two tug boats from the island nation of Seychelles were steaming toward the drifting Costa Allegra, which had 636 passengers and 413 crew members on board, but they were not expected to arrive until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest.Italian coast guard o

Feb. 28, 2012

Fire leaves cruise ship adrift off Seychelles

Noda Risks Japan Ruling Party Split in Preparing for U.S. Free-Trade Talks

Leafy green sugar cane stands in a field in Yomitan Village, Japan. (Bloomberg)Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda risks sparking the deepest split in his party since taking office two months ago as he determines whether to join trade talks with the U.S., his country’s No. 2 export destination. No

Feb. 28, 2012

Noda Risks Japan Ruling Party Split in Preparing for U.S. Free-Trade Talks

1 dead, 4 wounded in US high school shooting

CHARDON, Ohio (AP) -- A teenager opened fire in the cafeteria at his suburban high school Monday, killing one student and wounding four others before he was chased from the building by a teacher and captured a short distance away, authorities said.A student who saw the attack up close said it appear

Feb. 28, 2012

Russia, Ukraine foiled plot to kill Putin: report

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian and Ukrainian special services have arrested a group of suspects over an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia's state television reported Monday.The Channel One said the suspects, linked to a Chechen rebel leader, were preparing to kill Putin in Mo

Feb. 27, 2012

Colombia’s FARC announces halt to kidnapping

BOGOTA (AP) ― Colombia’s main rebel group said Sunday it is abandoning the practice of kidnapping and will soon free its last remaining “prisoners of war” ― 10 security force members held for as long as 14 years.The leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, announced on its website that it would no longer kidnap civilians “for financial ends,” unequivocally renouncing for the first time a tool it long used against Colombia’s well-heeled as well as foreigners.It is not clear whethe

Feb. 27, 2012

Israeli P.M. slams Palestinian leader

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for making an “inflammatory speech” about Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Sunday, saying his words undermine peace efforts.Speaking during a visit to Qatar, Abbas charged that Israel was intending to destroy Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits atop the remains of the two biblical Jewish temples. It is the most sacred site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. The site is a very sensitive and e

Feb. 27, 2012

Explosion hits Afghan airport

KABUL (AP) ― A suicide car bomber struck early Monday at the gates of Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, killing nine people in an attack insurgents said was revenge for U.S. troops burning Qurans.The explosion comes after six days of deadly protests in Afghanistan over the disposal of Qurans and other Islamic texts in a burn pit last week at a U.S. military base north of the capital.American officials have called the incident a mistake and issued a series of apologies. Af

Feb. 27, 2012

Suicide car bomber kills 3 outside Nigeria church

JOS, Nigeria (AP) ― A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives outside a major church Sunday, killing three people and wounding 38 in a restive central Nigerian city that has seen hundreds die in religious and ethnic violence.The radical Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack on the main headquarters of the Church of Christ in Nigeria that hit as worshippers took part in an early morning service. The attack follows other assaults the sect has claimed against Christians

Feb. 27, 2012

Murdoch’s new Sun on Sunday rolls off presses

Rupert Murdoch’s Sun on Sunday tabloid rolled off the presses for the first time, with the tycoon saying he wanted the paper replacing the scandal-hit News of the World to sell over two million copies. Stacks of the first Sunday edition of the Sun newspaper, The Sun on Sunday, are displayed at a sup

Feb. 27, 2012

Murdoch’s new Sun on Sunday rolls off presses

Philippine man thought dead, not dead

A man from the Philippines thought to have been dead and buried weeks ago turned out to be alive, his wife said.Jasper Soriano, 25, of the village of Quintong in San Carlos City, Pangasinan province, was last seen alive by his mother on Feb. 2, Gulf News reported Sunday.A body of an unidentified man

Feb. 27, 2012

G-20 linking IMF hike to bigger EU ‘firewall’ fund

The G-20 nations are conditioning additional money for the International Monetary Fund on the European Union first increasing its financial stabilization funds to ease concerns about the euro zone debt crisis, officials said Sunday.Officials participating in a meeting of G-20 nations’ finance minist

Feb. 27, 2012

U.S. girl, 11, fights classmate, dies hours later

An 11-year-old girl died following an after school fight at a Long Beach elementary school, but authorities say they have no immediate plans for arrests.Police said Saturday night that the girl died at a hospital hours after the fight with another 11-year-old girl outside the school, which sits abou

Feb. 27, 2012

Violence across Syria on eve of constitution vote

DAMASCUS (AP) -- Syria defied international calls to halt attacks on rebel enclaves as at least 89 people were killed nationwide Saturday on the eve of a constitutional referendum that the opposition sees as a ploy by President Bashar Assad’s regime.Assad presented the revised charter -- which allows for at least a theoretical opening of the country’s political system -- as an effort to placate critics and quell the 11-month uprising against his rule.But the vote is unlikely to overshadow a new

Feb. 26, 2012

Violence across Syria on eve of constitution vote

Judge denies Jackson doctor’s bid for bail

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A judge who presided over the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor refused Friday to release him on bail, saying he would be a danger to any community where he might try to practice medicine.Conrad Murray’s lawyer asked for his release pending appeal of his involuntary manslaughter conviction, but Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he saw little chance that Murray would prevail in getting his case overturned.Pastor made it clear that his view of Murray had not softened sinc

Feb. 26, 2012

Judge denies Jackson doctor’s bid for bail

Mandela hospitalized with stomach ailment

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ― Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hospitalized for a test to determine what is behind an undisclosed stomach ailment, and the country’s current leader said the much beloved 93-year-old icon was in no danger.Mandela, a Nobel peace laureate who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, has officially retired and last appeared in public in July 2010. He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term.Mandela “has h

Feb. 26, 2012

Mandela hospitalized with stomach ailment

NATO withdraws Afghanistan staff after shooting

KABUL (AFP) ― NATO on Saturday pulled all its staff out of Afghan government ministries after two U.S. military advisors were shot dead in the interior ministry, as anti-U.S. protests raged for a fifth day.Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying it was in revenge for the burning of Korans at a U.S.-run military base ― an incident that forced U.S. President Barack Obama to apologize to the Afghan people.In a day of violence across the country, a U.N. compound came under

Feb. 26, 2012

NATO withdraws Afghanistan staff after shooting

Clinton urges Tunisians to protect freedoms

U.S. secretary of state warns against return to autocracy; Tunisia was cradle of the Arab Spring revolutionsTUNIS (AP) ― U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday warned of backsliding in the democratic transformations under way in the Mideast and North Africa, and appealed for countries in the region to fulfill the promise of reform offered by the Arab Spring.In Tunisia, the catalyst for the tumult that engulfed the region last year, Clinton said the continued embrace of refor

Feb. 26, 2012

Clinton urges Tunisians to protect freedoms

Polls back Australian P.M.’s rival Rudd

SYDNEY (AFP) ― Kevin Rudd’s bid to lead Australia again was boosted Saturday when opinion polls showed he remains more popular than Prime Minister Julia Gillard and likely Labor’s best chance of winning an election.Rudd will face off against colleague Gillard on Monday in a ballot taken by the 103 members of the Labor Party caucus after a divisive battle that has seen the ruling party engage in unprecedented infighting.Gillard has said she is confident she will win the vote but Rudd has called o

Feb. 26, 2012

Two dead after blast destroys Brazil’s Antarctic base

SAO PAULO (AFP) ― An explosion destroyed a Brazilian research base in Antarctica Saturday, killing two navy personnel and injuring a third, authorities said.Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim confirmed the deaths of non-commissioned officer Carlos Alberto Vieira Figueiredo and sergeant Roberto Lopes dos Santos, who had earlier been reported missing.“In an act of heroism, they were precisely in the area of major risk in a bid to extinguish a fire and they did not succeed,” Amorim said.Navy s

Feb. 26, 2012

Berlusconi bribery trial ends with no verdict

MILAN (AP) ― Silvio Berlusconi’s corruption trial has ended with a court ruling that the statute of limitations had run out, handing the former premier another victory in a long string of judicial challenges.Berlusconi, who stepped down as premier in November as the sovereign debt crisis flared, was accused of paying a British lawyer, David Mills, $600,000 to lie during two 1990s trials to shield the politician and his Fininvest holding company from charges related to offshore companies Mills he

Feb. 26, 2012