The Korea Herald

U.S. says Iran fired on U.S. drone over Gulf

An Iranian attack aircraft fired at least twice at an unarmed U.S. drone conducting routine surveillance in international airspace over the Gulf, the Pentagon said Thursday. The aircraft missed and the drone returned to base unharmed.The shooting in the Gulf, which occurred just before 5 a.m. on Nov. 1, was unprecedented, Pentagon press secretary George Little said. The incident was not disclosed sooner because the military does not discuss classified surveillance missions, but agreed to answer

World News Nov. 9, 2012

Puerto Rico vote endorses statehood with asterisk

Puerto Ricans have supported U.S. statehood in a vote that jubilant members of the pro-statehood party say is the strongest sign yet that the Caribbean island territory is on the road to losing its second-class status.But Tuesday's vote comes with an asterisk and an imposing political reality: The island remains bitterly divided over its relationship to the United States and many question the validity of this week's referendum.Nearly a half million voters chose to leave a portion of the ballot b

World News Nov. 8, 2012

China opens communist congress with call for reform

China's president Thursday warned the Communist Party faces "collapse" if it fails to clean up corruption and called for an economic revamp as he opened a congress to inaugurate a new slate of leaders.The week-long party congress will end with a transition of power to Vice President Xi Jinping, who will govern for the coming decade amid growing pressure for reform of the communist regime's iron-clad grip on power.The party's outgoing general-secretary, President Hu Jintao, delivered his starkest

World News Nov. 8, 2012

China opens communist congress with call for reform

Researchers warn of a world going acidic

While world attention is focused on climate change and extreme weather, U.S. researchers say another global change underway must be addressed: acidification.The combustion of fossil fuels, smelting of ores, mining of coal and metal ores and the application of nitrogen fertilizer to soils are all driving down the pH of the Earth's air, water and the soil at rates faster than Earth's natural systems can buffer, posing threats to both land and sea life, they said.Janet Herman of the Department of E

Technology Nov. 7, 2012

Republicans lose US Senate seat

Republicans lost a seat in the Senate in Tuesday's elections, boosting Democratic prospects for keeping control of the upper chamber even as they had little hope of capturing the House of Representatives.Democrats were counting on the victory in Maine by independent Angus King as they looked to protect their 53-47 advantage in the Senate, where 33 of the 100 Senate seats were at stake in Tuesday's vote. Only a dozen Senate votes _ including Maine _ were seen as competitive.All 435 House seats we

World News Nov. 7, 2012

Korea to export KT-1 trainers to Peru

South Korea has signed a $200 million deal with Peru to export 20 KT-1 trainers, including 10 that can be altered into light attackers, officials said Tuesday.They will be delivered to Peru’s airfields within two years of production.The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and Korea Aerospace Industries signed the agreement with Peru’s Ministry of Defense in Lima on Tuesday. The two sides have been in talks regarding KT-1 since 2005.This marks the first time for Korea to export its aircraft t

Defense Nov. 7, 2012

Obama earns 4 more years

President Barack Obama swept to a emphatic re-election win over Mitt Romney Tuesday, forging new history by transcending a dragging economy and the stifling unemployment which haunted his first term.The 44th US president and the first African American to claim the Oval Office, was returned to power after a joyless election which appears to have deepened, rather than healed, his nation's political divides."In this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard,

World News Nov. 7, 2012

Car bomb near Iraqi military base kills 33

A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives detonated the vehicle near an Iraqi military base as soldiers changed shifts north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 33 people and wounding 56, according to authorities. The blast struck around midday as troops were leaving the base in Taji, 20 kilometers north of the capital, police said. Twenty-two soldiers were among the dead, and several vehicles were damaged, they said. The casualty toll was high because the attacker blew up the ca

World News Nov. 7, 2012

Korea in dilemma over aircraft missile purchase

The Air Force’s plan to purchase advanced air-to-surface missiles faces hurdles due to design and price problems, officials said Monday. The Air Force is trying to decide between Lockheed Martin’s JASSM and TAURUS Systems’ Taurus for the country’s fleet of F-15K strike fighters. However, defense officials said that JASSM missiles, which have the capability to penetrate North Korea’s underground bunkers, are not compatible with Boeing’s F-15Ks.On the other hand, the German-Swedish Taurus is highl

Defense Nov. 6, 2012

Director scores debut hit with coming-of-age beast tale

For those familiar with director Jo Sung-hee’s previous work, his first commercial film, “A Werewolf Boy,” will come as a surprise.This is mostly because of the tone of the movie. The star-studded film, featuring Song Joong-ki and Park Bo-young, is a fantasy romance between a teenage girl and a feral “wolf” boy who can neither read nor speak. Taking place in a rural Korean town in the 1960s, the film feels very much like a children’s story, filled with innocence, curiosity, humor and moving dram

Film Nov. 6, 2012

British UFO groups losing interest

One of Britain's foremost organizations for UFO experts said a meeting next week will discuss the waning popularity of the search for extraterrestrial life.Dave Wood, chairman of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena, said a meeting next week will discuss the waning popularity of the search for UFOs and the shuttering of several other groups dedicated to their study, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday."It is certainly a possibility that in 10 years time, it will be a d

Technology Nov. 6, 2012

Cockatoo makes, uses tool to get food

A cockatoo from a species not known to use tools has been observed spontaneously making and using tools for reaching food, Austrian researchers say."Figaro," a Goffin's cockatoo raised in captivity near Vienna, uses his powerful beak to cut long splinters out of wooden beams or branches in its aviary to reach and rake in objects out of its reach, researchers report in the journal Current Biology."During our daily observation protocols, Figaro was playing with a small stone," study leader Alice A

Technology Nov. 6, 2012

Mysterious whales seen in New Zealand

A whale almost unknown to science was seen for the first time after a mother and a male calf were stranded and died on a New Zealand beach, scientists said.They were spade-toothed beaked whales, Mesoplodon traversii, a species previously known only from a few bones, researchers at the University of Auckland said."This is the first time this species -- a whale over 5 meters (16 feet) in length -- has ever been seen as a complete specimen and we were lucky enough to find two of them," Rochelle Co

Technology Nov. 6, 2012

U.N. orders global sanctions against Haqqani network

The U.N. Security Council on Monday ordered global sanctions against the Haqqani militant group in Afghanistan and its suicide attack mastermind.The network, which has been widely linked to Pakistan, is accused of carrying out a string of murderous attacks in Afghanistan including against the U.S. embassy and a major hotel in Kabul.Haqqani and its chief suicide attack organizer, Qari Zakir, were added to the U.N.'s Afghanistan-Taliban sanctions list. This means nations must apply an assets freez

World News Nov. 6, 2012

Former BBC DJ is suspected of threatening a colleague

A former DJ at BBC’s Radio 1 is suspected as being at the center of allegations that she threatened a male colleague who committed suicide last month. According to the local media, Russell Joslin, a reporter at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, is believed to have received a series of phone messages from Liz Kershaw after they argued during a meal out together in 2007. The phone messages branded him a “flake” and “a loser.”Joslin’s family claim he was driven to his death after BBC bosses failed to

Television Nov. 5, 2012

Former BBC DJ is suspected of threatening a colleague

Articles by 윤민식