Police have arrested 190 people and rescued 18 children in a major US crackdown on child pornography, including some detained in Europe and elsewhere, judicial authorities said Friday.Most of the arrests in Operation Orion through the month of May took place in the United States, but suspects were also picked up in Argentina, Britain, the Philippines and Spain."Many of the child exploitation cases

World News June 9, 2012

Britain's government announced plans Friday to make forced marriage a criminal offence, with parents who coerce their children into marrying to face "very tough punishments".Prime Minister David Cameron said forced marriage had been tolerated as a cultural practice in Britain's Asian community for too long and was "little short of slavery"."For too long in this country we have thought 'well, it's

World News June 9, 2012

MEXICO CITY -- The Peruvian military and police are ready to send in rescue teams to find a helicopter carrying eight South Koreans that went missing earlier in the week, a diplomatic source said Friday.The South Korean Embassy source in Lima said a 21-person air rescue team is on standby so they can be sent in by helicopter to the Hualla Hualla region where the ill-fated S-58 chopper may have cra

Social Affairs June 9, 2012

Two North Korean nationals were sentenced to eight year prison terms after being caught trying to steal secret rocket technology from the Ukraine, local sources said Saturday.Sources said the North Koreans identified as Ryu Song-chul and Lee Tae-kil were arrested for spying in July after they tried to steal classified technology from the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipropetrovsk. The sentence was h

North Korea June 9, 2012

Nexon Co., a Tokyo-based maker of online games, bought a 804.5 billion won ($685 million) stake in NCSoft Corp. to become the South Korean company's biggest shareholder.Nexon purchased 3.2 million NCSoft shares, a 14.7 percent stake, from NCSoft Chairman Kim Taek-Jin for 250,000 won apiece, it said in a statement today. That's 6.7 percent less than today's closing price in Seoul for NCSoft, which

Technology June 9, 2012

PATROL BASE PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan (AP) -- The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan has apologized for civilian deaths in a coalition airstrike earlier this week.Marine Gen. John Allen flew to Logar province on Friday to personally deliver his regrets to villagers and provincial officials for the deaths of women, children and village elders in Wednesday's pre-dawn raid to capture a Tali

World News June 8, 2012

GENEVA (AP) -- Switzerland's supreme court has ruled that Google doesn't need to be perfect when it comes to privacy.The Internet giant has won a partial repeal of a lower court decision that required the company to guarantee absolute anonymity for people pictured in its popular Street View service.``It must be accepted that up to a maximum of 1 percent of the images uploaded are insufficiently an

World News June 8, 2012

HYDERABAD, India (AP) -- Tens of thousands of asthma-sufferers have mobbed a southern Indian stadium to swallow live sardines smeared with a yellow herbal paste they believe will cure their breathing problems.Despite doctors' criticism, the Goud family has drawn throngs of people for years with its secret fish and herbal formula it says it received from a Hindu saint about 170 years ago.Hyderabad

World News June 8, 2012

The U.S. Defense Department has stopped issuing weapons to thousands of law enforcement agencies until it is satisfied that state officials can account for all the surplus guns, aircraft, Humvees and armored personnel carriers it has given police under a $2.6 billion program, The Associated Press has learned.The program provides police departments and other law enforcement agencies with military e

World News June 8, 2012

TOKYO (AP) -- The U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights issues says that political and economic reforms unfolding in Myanmar are a great example for North Korea to follow.Robert King told reporters in Tokyo on Friday that if North Korea took similar steps as Myanmar, the international community would probably respond favorably, as it has with Myanmar.In the wake of President Thein Sein's reforms

World News June 8, 2012

CHEONAN (Yonhap) -- The ruling Saenuri Party held a lawmakers' workshop Friday, marred by the absence of two presidential hopefuls apparently in anger after the party's leadership rebuffed their demand for changing the primary rules.The two-day worshop in the central city of Cheonan was closely watched as intense debate was expected over the primary rule issue amid speculation that three minor con

Politics June 8, 2012

PYONGYANG (AFP) -- North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-Un on Friday led a mass rally for his late father and grandfather following the country's failed rocket launch.The defiant launch drew condemnation from world leaders who described it as a "provocative" act that threatened regional security, despite Pyongyang insisting it was intended to put a satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes.But Jong-

North Korea April 13, 2012

SEOUL, April 13, 2012 (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was elected "first chairman" of the powerful National Defence Commission, apparently a new title, state media said Friday.His late father Kim Jong-Il was named "eternal" chairman of the commission, the country's top decision-making body, at an annual session of the North's rubber-stamp parliament, the official KCNA news agency said.The

North Korea April 13, 2012