The Korea Herald

An insider's account of vote rigging for Putin

MOSCOW (AP) _ The election official had a problem. Workers at his polling station had been stuffing ballot boxes with votes for Vladimir Putin's party all day, he says, but when the votes were counted United Russia still didn't have enough.So he huddled with the election commission he chaired at the

Dec. 7, 2011

An insider's account of vote rigging for Putin

Do presidents really age faster than rest of us?

CHICAGO (AP) — White House wannabes take note: Contrary to the idea that being president speeds up aging, a study shows that many U.S. commanders in chief have actually lived longer than their peers.Using life expectancy data for men the same age as presidents on their inauguration days,

Dec. 7, 2011

Do presidents really age faster than rest of us?

Russia sends troops to Moscow after protests: official

Russia has sent interior ministry troops to Moscow and increased the alert level of security forces after a protest of thousands of people opposing Vladimir Putin, officials said on Tuesday. "They (the troops) have just one aim -- to ensure the security of the citizens," interior mi

Dec. 6, 2011

Egypt runoff exposes tensions between Islamists

CAIRO (AP) ― The runoff Monday for Egypt’s first-round parliamentary elections heated up tensions between competing Islamist groups that have so far dominated the vote, with scuffles breaking out and allegations of death threats.The strife shows the challenges facing the front-runner, the Muslim Brotherhood, after hard-line Islamist parties made a surprisingly strong showing. The more moderate Brotherhood is now under pressure to reassure both Egyptians and foreign allies that the country is not

Dec. 6, 2011

Iraq bomb attacks on pilgrims kill 28

HILLA, Iraq (AFP) ― A wave of bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims in Iraq killed 28 people and wounded 78 Monday, a day before the peak of the Ashura religious commemorations, security officials and medics said.It was the bloodiest day in Iraq since Oct. 27, when at least 32 people were killed and 71 wounded in twin blasts in Baghdad.In Monday’s deadliest attack, a car bomb blasted pilgrims in the Neel area north of Hilla south of Baghdad, in central Iraq, security officials said.“We received

Dec. 6, 2011

Belgium P.M. to be sworn in after 541 days

BRUSSELS (AP) ― Belgium’s soon-to-be prime minister set up a slimmed-down coalition Monday, in one of the final steps before his team formally ends the record 541 days the country has gone without a government.The swearing-in on Tuesday will be a long-awaited relief to the entire nation of 6.5 million Dutch speakers and 4.5 million French speakers who long ago grew frustrated with the deadlock between politicians over linguistic differences.One radio presenter finally shaved off the beard he has

Dec. 6, 2011

16,000 Holocaust victims to receive German pensions

NEW YORK (AP) ― Germany agreed after a year of tough negotiations to pay pensions to about 16,000 additional Holocaust victims worldwide ― mostly survivors who were once starving children in Nazi ghettos, or were forced to live in hiding for fear of death.The agreement announced Monday between the New York-based Claims Conference and the German government is “not about money ― it’s about Germany’s acknowledgment of these people’s suffering,’’ said Greg Schneider, the conference’s executive vice

Dec. 6, 2011

More ‘mancession’ dads caring for kids while moms at work

One-third of fathers with working wives are now the regular caregivers for their children, the result of the depressed economy and large numbers of out-of-work men, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. The number of such dads caring for children under age 15 increased to 32 percent in 2010 from 26

Dec. 6, 2011

WikiLeaks' Assange can continue extradition fight

LONDON (AP) — A British court Monday gave WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange permission to continue his legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations.The decision means Assange does not face immediate deportation. British judges said Assange could apply to the Supreme C

Dec. 5, 2011

Putin's party barely hangs onto its majority

MOSCOW (AP) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party saw its majority in Russia's parliament weaken sharply, according to preliminary results released Monday, a humiliating setback for the man who has steadily tightened his grip on the nation for nearly 12 years.Some opposition politicians and

Dec. 5, 2011

Putin's party barely hangs onto its majority

Pakistani Taliban splintering into factions

ISLAMABAD (AP) ― Battered by Pakistani military operations and U.S. drone strikes, the once-formidable Pakistani Taliban has splintered into more than 100 smaller factions, weakened and is running short of cash, according to security officials, analysts and tribesmen from the insurgent heartland.The group, allied with al-Qaida and based in the northwest close to the Afghan border, has been behind much of the violence tearing apart Pakistan over the last 4 1/2 years. Known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban

Dec. 5, 2011

Muted hopes for major Afghanistan conference

BONN (AFP) ― A major international conference here Monday will seek a way forward for Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO combat troops in 2014 but the boycott of two crucial players has dampened hopes of success.The one-day gathering brings around 100 national delegations and aid organizations to the former German capital Bonn, 10 years after another meeting here put an interim Afghan government in place after the Taliban’s ouster.“We will not forget Afghanistan after 2014,” German Foreign

Dec. 5, 2011

Muted hopes for major Afghanistan conference

U.S. spy drone shot down, Iran claims

Tehran warns of retaliation against violation of its airspace; Washington denies drone was downedTEHRAN (AP) ― Iran’s armed forces have shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along the country’s eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country’s airspace by American drone aircraft.“An advanced RQ-170 unmanned American spy plan

Dec. 5, 2011

In Iowa, Gingrich streaks past Romney

WASHINGTON (AP) ― With businessman Herman Cain gone from the Republican presidential race, Newt Gingrich luxuriated in good polling news over the weekend ― two key surveys showing him well ahead of main challenger Mitt Romney in the fast-approaching Iowa caucuses.Voters in the Midwestern state will vote in local caucus meetings on Jan. 3, the first-in-the-nation contests that choose delegates to the Republican national convention next September in Tampa, Florida, that will formally name Presiden

Dec. 5, 2011

Supermarket boss to run euro member Slovenia

LJUBLJANA (AFP) ― Fresh from a surprise election victory, Zoran Jankovic aimed Monday to get down to business and turn Slovenia around the same way he once did as boss of the euro member’s largest supermarket chain.But whether the same skills that made Jankovic a millionaire and got him elected twice as Ljubljana’s mayor will enable him to soothe investor concerns about a slowing economy and a growing debt pile is uncertain, analysts said.“Today Jankovic can drink champagne,” Vlado Miheljak, pol

Dec. 5, 2011

Supermarket boss to run euro member Slovenia

Saudi report claims women at wheel will have sex

This file image made from video released by Change.org, shows a Saudi Arabian woman driving a car in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP)RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A report given to a high-level advisory group in Saudi Arabia claims that allowing women in the kingdom to drive could encourage premarital

Dec. 5, 2011

Saudi report claims women at wheel will have sex

84-year-old says she was strip searched at JFK

NEW YORK (AP) — An 84-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pa

Dec. 5, 2011

Putin's party losing support in parliamentary vote

MOSCOW (AP) _ Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party struggled to hang onto its majority in Russia's parliamentary election, results showed Monday, suggesting Russians were wearying of the man who has dominated Russian politics for more than a decade.Rival parties and election monitors said even a re

Dec. 5, 2011

Herman Cain ends 2012 presidential bid

ATLANTA (AP) ― A defiant Herman Cain suspended his faltering bid for the Republican presidential nomination Saturday amid a drumbeat of sexual misconduct allegations against him, throwing his staunchly conservative supporters up for grabs with just one month to go before the lead-off caucuses in Iowa.The Georgia businessman condemned the accusations as “false and unproven’’ but said they had been hurtful to his family, particularly his wife, Gloria, and were drowning out his ability to deliver h

Dec. 4, 2011

Army defectors complicate Syria uprising

BEIRUT (AP) ― Nearly nine months into the Syrian uprising, many protesters are pinning their hopes on an increasingly bold group of army defectors to give their revolution a fighting chance against President Bashar Assad’s fiercely loyal forces.But as the Free Syrian Army gains power, the defectors could make it harder for the West to give strong diplomatic support to a movement that so far has been largely peaceful. The FSA also could give the regime an excuse to crack down even more strongly,

Dec. 4, 2011