KOREA News:

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"[Alabama Republican Senator] Richard Shelby, R-Ala. [Republican-Alabama]"
"Foreign auto plants: [German automaker] Mercedes-Benz, [South Korean automaker] Hyundai, [Japanese automaker] Honda"

"[South Carolina Republican Senator] Jim DeMint, R-S.C. [Republican-South Carolina]"
"Foreign auto plants: [German automaker] BMW [Bayerische Motoren Werke]"

"[Kentucky Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. [Republican-Kentucky]"
"Foreign auto plants: [Japanese automaker] Toyota"

"[Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker, R-Tenn. [Republican-Tennessee]"
"Foreign auto plants: Two [Japanese automaker] Nissan plants, as well as the company's U.S. [United States] headquarters; [German automaker] Volkswagen will open near Chattanooga [Tennessee] in 2011"

"As mayor of Chattanooga, he [Corker] reportedly conceived the idea for the site that will soon become home to the [German automaker] Volkswagen plant, and was instrumental in its development. He organized efforts to lure [Japanese automaker] Toyota to the area, and when that failed, he had VW execs [executives] and other top state politicians over to his house for dinner." ... "Georgia's two Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaakson, both voted against the plan as well. Their state has a big [South Korean automaker] Kia factory coming in soon." (1, 2) -By Alex Koppelman and Mike Madden with contributions by Vincent Rossmeier and Gabriel Winant -Salon

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Thanksgiving - Manufacturer

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World - US - India - Japan - China - Hong Kong - South Korea - Singapore - Indonesia - "World markets continue to sink over U.S. woes: India exchange briefly suspended after 9% drop tied to investor pessimism." ... "Japan's Nikkei 225 index, the benchmark for Asia's biggest bourse, plummeted 5.7 percent to close at 12,573.05 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the lowest close since Sept. 8, 2005. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 7.2 percent to its lowest close since early August." ... "Trading was halted in India when the Sensex index plummeted 9.75 percent within minutes of opening. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 8 percent by midday after diving 5.5 percent the day before." ... "Asian markets have fallen sharply since the start of the year: Japan's benchmark index has sunk nearly 17 percent, while the Hang Seng is down a stunning 22 percent." ... "That slide continued Tuesday, with benchmark indices in China, South Korea and Singapore falling at least 4 percent. Australia's benchmark index slid 7.1 percent and Indonesia's market was down 9 percent." -AP via -MSNBC 

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US - India - Japan - Hong Kong - China - Australia - South Korea - Singapore - "Asian stocks tumble on US recession fears." ... "Asian stock markets fell sharply on Monday as a $140bn fiscal stimulus package outlined on Friday by [Republican] President George Bush did nothing to assuage investor fears of a recession for Asia’s most important trading partner." ... "India led the declines, with the benchmark Sensex Index plunging nearly 11 per cent at one point, before finishing down about 7 per cent." ... "In Tokyo [Japan's capital], the Nikkei 225 slumped 3.9 per cent to close near a 27-month low of 13,325.94. The index has lost a quarter of its value in the past six months." ... "Hong Kong stocks dropped 5.5 per cent while H shares, or Hong Kong-listed shares of mainland Chinese companies, skidded 7.1 per cent. Australian stocks extended their losing run to an 11th straight session, falling 2.9 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi shed 3 per cent to 1,683.56 as exporters LG Philips LCD dropped 1.1 per cent to Won40,400 and Hyundai Motor dropped 0.5 per cent to Won67,100. Singapore was down over 5 per cent in late afternoon trading." -By Lindsay Whipp and Joe Leahy -FT.com

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Secret - Rudy Giuliani - Drug - Government - Politics - Qatar - Hong Kong - North Korea - Crime - Global - US - 2008 Election - "Giuliani Won't Release Client Names." ... "For the past year, though, Giuliani has declined to identify his clients on the grounds that they entered into confidentially agreements with his firm." ... "Giuliani formed the consulting firm in early 2002, offering "management consulting service to governments and business" and over the next five years it earned more than $100 million. That income, along with a robust speaking schedule, helped transform the moderately well-off public servant into a globe-trotting consultant whose net worth is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars." ... "Giuliani Partners has represented a pharmaceutical company mired in a lengthy investigation; a confessed drug smuggler who hired Giuliani to ensure his security company could do business with the federal government; and the horse racing industry, which was eager to recover public confidence after a betting scandal." ... "But many of the firm's clients have never been listed on its web site or identified publicly by associates, and two of the most controversial arrangements among them only surfaced in recent weeks. One involved a 2005 agreement to provide security advice to the government of Qatar. The second stemmed from a deal to assist a partnership proposing a Southeast Asian gambling venture. Among the partners were relatives of a Hong Kong billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea's Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune." -By Matthew Mosk -WashingtonPost

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Secret - Rudolph Giuliani - Nevada - New York - US - Singapore - China - North Korea - International - Crime - Law - 2008 Election - "Giuliani's business ties create challenge: Was a consultant for controversial tycoon." ... "Nine days after registering his presidential exploratory committee last November, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudolph Giuliani appeared in Singapore to help a Las Vegas [Nevada] developer make a pitch for a $3.5 billion casino resort." ... "Though the bid ultimately failed, and there was nothing illegal about the involvement, it drew Giuliani into a complex partnership with the family of a controversial Hong Kong [China] billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea's Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime by the U.S. government." ... "Giuliani's participation as a security consultant in the Singapore gambling venture illustrates the challenge he faces while attempting to win the Republican presidential nomination with a law-and-order message while maintaining a far-flung, international business portfolio, an unknown portion of which remains in the shadows." ... "Even today, more than a year after the former New York mayor signaled his intention to run for the presidency, it remains impossible to fully evaluate Giuliani's business dealings because he has declined to list all of the clients in Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm he founded and heads." (1, 2, 3) -By Andrew Zajac and Evan Osnos with contributions by Rick Pearson -ChicagoTribune 

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China - Environmental - Health - Politics - Air - Land - Water - Coal - Weather - Science - Industrial - History - International - South Korea - Japan - USA - California - Los Angeles - EU - Sports - Children - "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes." ... "No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo." ... "But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut." ... "Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water." ... "Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing [China's capital] is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics." ... "Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life." ... "China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source." ... "China’s problem has become the world’s problem. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea [capital], and Tokyo [Japan's capital]. Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles [California, USA] originates in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) -By Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley -NYTimes 

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US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Korean - Military - History - "Short of Purple Hearts, Navy tells vet to buy own." ... "Korean War veteran Nyles Reed, 75, opened an envelope last week to learn a Purple Heart had been approved for injuries he sustained as a Marine on June 22, 1952." ... "But there was no medal. Just a certificate and a form stating that the medal was "out of stock."" ... "The form letter from the Navy Personnel Command told Reed he could wait 90 days and resubmit an application, or buy his own medal." ... "After waiting 55 years, however, Reed decided to pay $42 for his own Purple Heart and accompanying ribbon — plus state sales taxes — at a military surplus store." ... "The Department of Defense estimates that 29,098 troops have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan through Thursday." -By Anne Marie Kilday -AP via -Chron 

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North Korea - Food - Farmland - Disaster - History - UN - Economy - "North Korea Suffers Worst Rains Ever: Floods Destroy 11 Percent Of Impoverished Country's Farmland At The Height Of Growing Season." ... "Floods caused by the largest rains ever recorded in parts of North Korea have destroyed more than one-tenth of the impoverished country's farmland at the height of the growing season, official media reported Wednesday." ... "The U.N. food agency estimated the damage claimed by the North so far was about a quarter of the crop losses the country said it suffered in 1995 floods. That previous disaster, along with mismanagement of the economy and the loss of [North Koreas's capital] Pyongyang's Soviet benefactor, led to famine that is believed to have killed as many as 2 million North Koreans." ... "Precipitation along some areas of the Taedong River were the "largest ever in the history" of measurements taken by the country's weather agency, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported." -AP via -CBSNews 

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South Korea - US - Human - Stem Cell - History - Massachusetts - Medical - "Korean Cloner Redeemed... Sort Of." ... "In a study published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, a team of Harvard [Massachusetts] researchers reveals that the dubious stem cells created by [South] Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang were indeed historic, just not for the reason that he originally claimed." ... "In 2004, the world heralded Hwang, who reported that he had created the world's first human embryonic stem cells using a delicate cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). If Hwang had actually done what he had claimed, he would certainly have brought stem-cell-based therapies closer to reality, by making it possible to develop patient-specific cells to treat diseases from diabetes to Parkinson's. Two years after his announcement, however, allegations of fraud led to an investigation by an independent committee of scientists, which failed to verify his findings, and Hwang and his feat were discredited; last year he and his principal researchers were fired from their posts at Seoul National University." ... "But the new study, led by Dr. George Daley at the Children's Hospital in Boston [Massachusetts], shows that Hwang's stem cell line contains the first human cells to be generated not through SCNT, but through a process called parthenogenesis, sometimes referred to as virgin birth, since development is sparked spontaneously from the egg alone, rather than from the union of egg and sperm." ... "In nuclear transfer, stem cells are created by inserting the nucleus from a donor's cell, usually a skin cell, into an egg cell, whose DNA-containing nucleus has been removed. The new cell then starts to divide and produce stem cells." -By Alice Park -TIME.com

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US - Iraq - Terrorism - Politics - South Korea - History - "US signals permanent stay in Iraq: Critics say a long-term US military presence may provoke greater Iraqi resistance of the 'occupier.'" ... "This spring's debate over a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq may have implied that the US presence there is likely to wind down soon, but recent comments from both the administration and military officials suggest a different scenario." ... "In Washington and among American military officers in Iraq, the idea of establishing permanent US bases there is under discussion – with one official citing as an example the decades-long presence of US troops in Korea. The aim would be to keep American soldiers on Iraqi soil well into the century as a support for the Iraqi government against outside aggression, a means of training and developing a new Iraqi military, and a platform from which the US could fight Al Qaeda and other war-on-terror opponents." ... "Yet as early proposals in notebooks at the White House and the Pentagon are slowly revealed to a US public increasingly opposed to the Iraq war, many Iraq and Middle East experts warn that any plan for permanent bases would cement the US image in Iraq and the region as that of an occupying force." ... "In recent comments to the press, White House spokesman Tony Snow broached the idea of a long-term US military presence in Iraq and specifically drew a comparison to Korea and the 30,000 troops the US keeps there [over] five decades after the end of the Korean War. At the same time, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke of a "protracted" US presence in Iraq." ... "The Korea comparison and comments from military officers in Iraq suggest the US may be contemplating a long-term presence in Iraq of 30,000 to 50,000 troops – perhaps one-quarter of the numbers there today. But many experts caution against equating Iraq in the 21st century with South Korea in the 20th.v"The analogy doesn't make sense," says [Brookings Institution military expert Michael] Mr. O'Hanlon. "South Korea was threatened by an external enemy. Iraq is threatened by internal chaos."" (1, 2, 3) -By Howard LaFranchi -CSMonitor 

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US - Korea -  John Doolittle - Brent Wilkes - Abramoff - Buckham - DeLay - Politician - Lawmaker - Government - Military - Money - Sports - Virginia - Calif - Texas - "FBI searches Republican lawmaker’s home." ... "The FBI searched the Virginia home of [California Republican Representative] Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) last Friday in its investigation into ties between the congressman and his wife, Julie, and disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to law enforcement and other Congressional and K Street sources." ... "Doolittle used Abramoff’s luxury sports box for a fundraiser without initially reporting it to the Federal Election Commission." ... "Doolittle also has been under fire for paying his wife’s company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a 15 percent commission on all contributions that the company raised for Doolittle’s campaign committee and leadership PAC. Her only other clients were Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig; Abramoff’s former restaurant Signatures; and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to ex-Majority Leader [Texas Republican Representative] Tom DeLay (R-Texas), created." ... "Doolittle also received contributions from indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his associates, and investigators are probing whether those contributions are linked to any official action Doolittle took to help Wilkes’ company obtain millions of dollars in government earmarks." -By Mike Soraghan and Susan Crabtree -TheHill.com 

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Virginia - University - Mental Health - "Police: Cho taken to mental health center in 2005." ... "Cho Seung-Hui was referred to a mental health facility in 2005 after officers responded to accusations he was suicidal and stalked female students, police said Wednesday." ... "Authorities received no more complaints about the 23-year-old English major until Monday when he killed at least 30 people before taking his own life on the Virginia Tech campus, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said." ... "The gun owner who sold him the Glock 9 mm, one of the guns used in the rampage at Norris [Hall], said the resident alien from South Korea easily passed a background check last month before purchasing the weapon." -CNN 

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US - North Korea - Nuclear - Military - History - Politics - "N. Korean Nuclear Conflict Has Deep Roots: 50 Years of Threats and Broken Pacts Culminate in Apparent Atomic Test." ... "Democrats and Republicans have been quick to use North Korea's apparent nuclear test to benefit their own party in these final weeks of the congressional campaign, but a review of history shows that both sides have contributed to the current situation." ... "There is more than 50 years of history to Pyongyang's attempt to gain a nuclear weapon, triggered in part by threats from Presidents Harry S. Truman [Democrat] and Dwight D. Eisenhower [Republican] to end the Korean War." ... "In 1950, when a reporter asked Truman whether he would use atomic bombs at a time when the war was going badly, the president said, "That includes every weapon we have."" ... "Three years later, Eisenhower made a veiled threat, saying he would "remove all restraints in our use of weapons" if the North Korean government did not negotiate in good faith an ending to that bloody war." ... "In 1957, the United States placed nuclear-tipped Matador missiles in South Korea, to be followed in later years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, by nuclear artillery, most of which was placed within miles of the demilitarized zone." ... "It was not until President [Democrat] Jimmy Carter's administration, in the late 1970s, that the first steps were taken to remove some of the hundreds of nuclear weapons that the United States maintained in South Korea, a process that was not completed until 1991, under the first [Republican] Bush administration." -By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost 

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North Korea - International - US - Japan - South Korea - China - Russia - UN - Military - Politics - "Outcry at N Korea 'nuclear test': North Korea's claim to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon has sparked international condemnation." ... "President George W Bush said the US was working to confirm the claim, which he branded a "provocative" act." ... "Japan and South Korea also condemned the test and even Pyongyang's closest ally China expressed its "resolute opposition", calling the move "brazen"." ... "Members of the United Nations Security Council have begun meeting in New York to discuss their reaction." ... "The size of the bomb is uncertain. South Korean reports put it as low as 550 tons of destructive power but Russia said it was between five and 15 kilotons. The 1945 Hiroshima bomb was 12.5-15 kilotons." ... "South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said it would be "difficult" to maintain his country's policy of engagement with the North." ... "He feared the move could "spark a nuclear arms build-up in other countries", although Japan quickly said it would maintain its ban on nuclear weapons." ... "If confirmed, the test would make North Korea the ninth country known to have nuclear weapons." -BBC /News 

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