The Korea Herald

Al-Qaida says al-Zawahri has succeeded bin Laden

Jun 16, 2011

CAIRO (AP) -- Al-Qaida has selected its longtime No. 2 to succeed Osama bin Laden following last month's U.S. commando raid that killed the terror leader, according to a statement posted Thursday on a web site affiliated with the network. Ayman al-Zawahri, who will turn 60 next week, is the son of an upper middle class Egyptian family of doctors and scholars. His father was a pharmacology profe...
Hackers say they hit CIA website

Jun 16, 2011

An 18-year-old Greek man has been arrested in Athens, accused of hacking into websites of the U.S. government and the international crime fighting agency Interpol, and engaging in credit card fraud, Greek police said. (AP-Yonhap News) WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group of hackers who breached the Senate's computer system this week claimed responsibility Wednesday for problems with the CIA's website. Th...
Japan nuke plants to add vents

Jun 15, 2011

TOKYO (AP) ― The operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant said Tuesday it is installing rooftop vents and taking additional safety measures at two other plants to help cope with any severe accident in the future. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will add vents to seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in north-central Japan to prevent devastating hydrogen explosions like those t...
India searches for executioners

Jun 15, 2011

(MCT) India is on the search for hangmen, as it needs to carry out only its third execution in 15 years, the Time magazine reported. It has about 1.2 billion people working in almost every field, but lacks qualified executioners who can prepare the rope and tie the knot in the right way to ensure a quick death. Convicted murderer Mahendra Nath Das in Assam state is just one of 346 people who a...
German two-year-old dies from E. coli

Jun 15, 2011

BERLIN (AFP) – A two-year-old boy Tuesday became the first child to die in an outbreak of a virulent strain of E. coli in Germany that authorities say is abating, taking the death toll to at least 37. The child died in hospital in Hanover overnight after becoming infected with enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), authorities in the northern state of Lower Saxony said. He had been in intensive car...
S&P cuts Greece’s rating to lowest

Jun 14, 2011

ATHENS (AP) ― Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating deeper into junk territory Monday, saying the country is likely to default on its massive debts at least once by 2013 ― a decision Athens said ignored its efforts to secure continued funding in coming years The rating agency said the downgrade from “B” to “CCC” “reflects our view that there is a significantly higher likelihood of one or ...
Death can’t stop woman from becoming a mother

Jun 14, 2011

An Israeli woman has become a mother two years after her death, local reports told. Keren Ayash, who was suffering from cancer, had to leave her husband in 2009 at age 35. After her diagnosis, the couple had embryos frozen for future use. Her last wish was to have a baby via a surrogate mother, which Nisim, her husband, agreed to. (MCT) However, Nisim had to go through many legal difficulties...
Elderly woman uses AIDS threat to rob Colorado bank: police

Jun 14, 2011
Could prenatal DNA testing open Pandora’s box?

Jun 13, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ― Imagine being pregnant and taking a simple blood test that lays bare the DNA of your fetus. And suppose that DNA could reveal not only medical conditions like Down syndrome, but also things like eye color and height. And the risk for developing depression or Alzheimer’s disease. And the chances of being gay. So far that’s still science fiction. But scientists have been taking som...
Syria’s army seizes back restive town

Jun 13, 2011

BEIRUT (AP) ― Elite Syrian troops backed by helicopters and tanks regained control Sunday of a town where police and soldiers joined forces with the protesters they were ordered to shoot ― a decisive assault from a government prepared for an all-out battle to keep power. Troops led by the president’s brother shelled Jisr al-Shughour as the gunships hovered overhead, paving the way for scores of ...
Strong quake again rocks damaged New Zealand city

Jun 13, 2011

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) _ A series of strong earthquakes shook the quake-weary New Zealand city of Christchurch on Monday, briefly trapping two people inside a church. The quakes forced people to flee in panic from buildings. There were no initial reports of injuries. Christchurch has been shaken by thousands of aftershocks since a 6.3-magnitude quake killed 181 people in February. A seri...
Blasts kill 34 in Pakistan, as CIA chief visits

Jun 12, 2011

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ― Two explosions went off minutes apart in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar Sunday, killing 34 people and injuring nearly 100 in one of the deadliest attacks since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month, officials said. The blasts, one of which was caused by a suicide bomber, occurred just after midnight in an area of the city that is home to politic...
Ex-Russian officer who killed Chechen shot dead

Jun 12, 2011

In this Dec. 16, 2002 file photo Russian Col. Yuri Budanov sits in a defendant‘s box during a trial in Rostov-on-Don. (AP-Yonhap News) MOSCOW (AP) -- A disgraced Russian army colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen teenage girl was gunned down contract-style in downtown Moscow Friday, investigators said. Yuri Budanov was sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping and murdering 18-year-old He...
Germany: Sprouts did cause deadly E. coli outbreak

Jun 10, 2011

BERLIN (AP) -- German vegetable sprouts caused the E. coli outbreak that has killed 31 people and sickened more than 3,000, investigators announced Friday after tracking the bacteria from patients in hospital beds to restaurants and then farm fields. Reinhard Burger, president of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease control center, said the pattern of the outbreak had produced e...
Panetta: Iraq will ask for U.S. troops to stay

Jun 10, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Leon Panetta, President Barack Obama’s choice to head the U.S. Defense Department, predicted Thursday that Iraq will ask the United States to keep some American troops in that country beyond the scheduled departure date at the year’s end. In wide-ranging testimony at a Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the current CIA direc...