DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Sheikh Hasina has been sworn in for her second straight term as Bangladesh's prime minister and third overall, following one of the most violent elections in the country's history.Hasina took the oath of office Sunday, a week after her Awami League party won an election marred by street fighting, low turnout and an opposition boycott that made the results a foregone conclusion.President Abdul Hamid also swore in 29 Cabinet ministers and 19 deputies.The election was one

Foreign Affairs Jan. 12, 2014

South Korea's tea imports spiked last year as demand increased for healthy and diet foods, customs data showed Sunday.According to the data by Korea Customs Service (KCS), South Korea imported 8,234 tons of tea last year, up 97 percent from 4,171 tons imported in 2009.The imports were valued at US$48.38 million, which represented a 187 percent rise from the $16.86 million tallied four years earlier, the data showed.Imports of yerba mate tea surged from 47 tons in 2009 to 446 tons in 2013, while

Jan. 12, 2014

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) -- A lawyer says a gay man in Cameroon who was jailed for sending a text message to another man saying "I'm very much in love with you," and who Amnesty Interational later declared a prisoner of conscience, has died.Lawyer Alice Nkom said Roger Jean-Claude Mbede, 34, died on Friday after his family removed him from the hospital where he had been seeking treatment for a hernia.Mbede was arrested in March 2011 and charged with violating a Cameroonian law that imposes up to f

Foreign Affairs Jan. 12, 2014

More Korean men in their late 30s and early 40s are hit by infertility, data showed Sunday. According to the National Health Insurance Service’s statistics, the number of male patients receiving infertility treatment jumped to around 190,000 last year, up 4.2 percent from 2008. The age group between late 30s and early 40s saw an increase of 16.2 percent, the highest among the surveyed.By gender, female infertility cases rose by 2.5 percent while those for male sufferers surged by nearly 12 perce

Social Affairs Jan. 12, 2014

NongHyup Bank denied a media report on Sunday that it served as a conduit for former President Lee Myung-bak to launder money while he was in office.The Weekly Hankook, the weekly magazine under Hankook Ilbo, reported in its online edition that former President Lee Myung-bak, who took office from February 2008 for five years, was suspected of laundering money via NongHyup Bank.The report said that after receiving an award from the United Arab Emirates with a monetary prize worth US$500,000 in Ma

Jan. 12, 2014

DAEGU --  Two POSCO employees were found dead Monday at the steelmaker's main plant in Pohang, southeastern South Korea, fire officials said.An accident of unknown cause occurred at an oxygen production facility of the Pohang plant about 380 kilometers southeast of Seoul at 8:30 p.m., said the officials, adding that fire fighters have rushed to the scene.The officials and the municipal government of Pohang said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the accident."The Pohang fir

Social Affairs Dec. 16, 2013

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) -- Representatives of Argentina's San Lorenzo first division football team are travelling to the Vatican on Monday to dedicate their national championship title to their top fan, Pope Francis.Team president Matias Lammens said after winning the Argentine title on Sunday that he would fly to Rome along with team coach Juan Antonio Pizzi, team vice president Marcelo Tinelli and several players.The pope, an avid San Lorenzo fan, also happens to turn 77 on Tuesday.The Argentine po

International Dec. 16, 2013

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) -- Disgruntled soldiers and politicians led by a former vice president attempted to overthrow the South Sudanese government, a top government official said Monday, as sporadic fighting continued between factions of the military in the latest violence to hit the world's youngest nation.Some troops within the main army base raided the weapons store in the capital but were repulsed, South Sudanese Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told The Associated Press Monday. The

International Dec. 16, 2013

South Korea's all-English television channel, Arirang TV, will become available on a major U.S. satellite service starting as early as the first half of next year, Seoul's broadcasting regulator said Monday.DirecTV, the largest U.S. satellite-television provider, recently added Arirang TV to its lineup of public interest channels, the Korea Communications Commission said.It is the second foreign broadcaster to be chosen by DirecTV as a public interest channel, following China's state-run CCTV. T

Television Dec. 16, 2013

KT Corp., South Korea's No. 2 mobile operator, said Monday it nominated a former Samsung president to be its new chief, who will take office by early next year pending shareholder approval.KT said its six outside directors and one inside director recommended Hwang Chang gyu to lead the telecom giant for a three-year tenure.The nomination of Hwang as the chief executive officer of KT awaits approval at a shareholders meeting early next year, it said.Hwang served as the president of the memory bus

Industry Dec. 16, 2013

Woori Finance Holdings Co. on Monday closed the bidding for its brokerage arm and three other units, as the government goes full steam ahead with privatizing South Korea's largest banking firm. KB Financial Group Inc., the second-largest banking firm here, and state-run NongHyup Financial Inc. had placed their bids for Woori Investment & Securities, WooriAviva Life Insurance Co., Woori Asset Management Co. and Woori FG Savings Bank as of 5 p.m., the lenders said.PineStreet Group Co., a local alt

Dec. 16, 2013

K-pop group Girls' Generation drew some 50,000 fans to two events held over the weekend to promote their new Japanese album, the group's management agency said Monday.The group held an event each at Yohokama Arena on Saturday and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka on Sunday to showcase songs on "Love & Peace" as well as older hits.In Yokohama, the group performed eight songs, including "Love & Peace," "My Oh My" and "Galaxy Supernova," before an audience of 30,000, S.M. Entertainment said. The Osa

Performance Dec. 16, 2013

Prosecutors said Friday they were seeking arrest warrants for a presidential staffer and a Seoul district official accused of illegally viewing the personal information of an alleged illegitimate son of the former chief prosecutor.The presidential staffer, Cho Oh-young, is under suspicion of illegally accessing the information of the 11-year-old boy, including his name, resident registration number, family history and home address, via Cho In-je, a senior official at the Seocho District Office i

Social Affairs Dec. 13, 2013

LONDON (AP) -- British author Colin Wilson, who gained fame with his first book, "The Outsider," has died. He was 82.Colin Stanley, Wilson's publisher and bibliographer, said the writer and philosopher never fully recovered from a stroke in 2011.Stanley said Friday that Wilson was admitted to a hospital in Cornwall, southwestern England, in October for pneumonia and died peacefully Dec. 5 with his wife, Joy, and daughter Sally by his side.The 1956 publication of "The Outsider," a study of creati

International Dec. 13, 2013

GENEVA  (AFP) -- Twenty-seven Muslims were killed Thursday in an attack by militias in a village in the west of the Central African Republic, the UN's human rights agency said Friday."According to information we have received, 27 Muslims were killed by self-defence militias, known as anti-Balaka, in the village of Bohong ... on Thursday," agency spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, decrying "a vicious cycle of attacks and reprisals" in the country.

International Dec. 13, 2013