The Korea Herald

Japan toughens up on yakuza gangsters

WorldJan 24, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) ― Call it a sign of the times for Japan’s yakuza crime syndicates ― placards on the fence around one of Tokyo’s most high-profile building sites warn: “Gangsters not welcome.” Developers of Tokyo’s Sky Tree broadcast tower, set to be the world’s highest when it is finished next year, are doing what long seemed unthinkable, shutting the door on the tattooed tough guys of the Japanese ...
U.S. says freighter rescue shows need for anti-piracy cooperation

WorldJan 23, 2011

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The U.S. said Friday that the rescue earlier that day of a South Korean freighter hijacked by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea is an example of international cooperation against pirates. “There’s a great deal of cooperation among countries,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a daily news briefing when asked about the operation by South Korean Navy comm...
U.S.-China tensions may grow again

WorldJan 20, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Despite the pomp, pageantry and vows of cooperation, tensions between the United States and China are likely to grow, not shrink, after President Barack Obama’s summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. While the United States struggles with near-chronic unemployment and a continuing housing crisis, China was the first major economy to power out of the global downturn an...
U.S. companies expand goals as Chinese leader arrives

WorldJan 19, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) ― U.S. companies have long demanded that China let its currency rise to make U.S. exports cheaper. But as President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week, U.S. companies are stressing other goals: Stopping the theft of intellectual property. And getting a fair chance to win government contracts. No one expects any big breakthroughs. Instead, many U.S. companies hold out hope that...
U.S. priest an unlikely ally to sex abuse victims

WorldJan 17, 2011

MILWAUKEE (AP) ― When a group of clergy sex-abuse victims held a news conference recently, it was the quiet man standing in the background who delivered the loudest message. Although the Rev. James Connell said little, his mere presence spoke volumes. It’s not every day that a Roman Catholic priest and archdiocesan vice chancellor stands in support as angry protesters demand his superiors stop h...
Unrest engulfs Tunisia after president flees

WorldJan 15, 2011

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- Unrest engulfed Tunisia on Saturday after a popular rebellion forced the president to flee: Dozens of inmates were killed in a prison fire, looters emptied shops and torched the main train station and gunfire echoed through the capital. Power changed hands for the second time in 24 hours in this North African country after President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the co...
Verizon may sell 12 million iPhones

WorldJan 10, 2011

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will sell 9 million to 12 million iPhones this year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing analyst estimates. The lower number would boost Apple Inc.’s overall sales by 5 percent, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., the Journal said. The iPhone may capture 5 percent of Verizon’s customers in its first quarter o...
New computer chips help PCs compete with tablets

WorldJan 5, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Semiconductor companies are whipping up a new generation of chips to bring richer video and better battery life to personal computers and help them hold off threats from tablets and increasingly powerful smart phones. Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., whose processors are the “brains” of PCs, are unveiling significant changes to their chips’ designs at this week’s...
[Tidbit] Indian farmer claims to be ‘world’s oldest dad at 94’

Jan 4, 2011

A lucky man aged 110 has found a wife willing to take care of him, Ahmad Mohamad Isa told Malay-language newspaper Utusan Malaysia earlier last week. “It doesn’t matter who she is, as long as she can cook for me,” Ahmad told the paper. “It is lonely to live alone and I am afraid to sleep alone. If I have a wife she can take care of me,” he said in an interview, as reported by the Daily Telegrap...
Six choke to death on New Year rice cakes

WorldJan 3, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) ― Six people choked to death and five others were in a serious condition after eating traditional glutinous “mochi” rice cakes to celebrate the New Year in Tokyo, fire department officials said Monday. The victims, in their 70s or older, died of suffocation over the weekend after eating the New Year delicacy, the fire department said. During the New Year period, one of Japan’s bigge...
WikiLeaks chief arrested in London over rape claim

WorldDec 7, 2010

LONDON (AFP) - WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange was arrested in London Tuesday on suspicion of rape after surrendering to a Swedish arrest warrant, setting up a possible extradition fight that could drag on for months. Assange, 39, was detained after attending a London police station by appointment at 0930 GMT and is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates Court later in the day, the Metr...