President Barack Obama declared Syria's main opposition group the sole “legitimate representative” of its country's people Tuesday, deeming the move “a big step” in the international diplomatic efforts to end Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.Obama said the newly formed Syrian Opposition Council “is now inclusive enough” to be granted the elevated status, which paves the way for the greater U.S. support for the organization.“Obviously, with that recognition comes responsibilities,

North Korea removed a section of its long-range rocket Tuesday, a day after it extended the launch window due to technical problems, a Seoul official said. Satellite images taken on Monday showed signs that technicians had begun to disassemble part of the rocket and moved the pieces to a nearby assembly line at Dongchang-ri in the country‘s northwest, the source said asking for anonymity.“It seems that North Korea has pulled down the rocket from the launch pad to fix technical problems,” he said

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor in a New York Hasidic community was found guilty Monday of repeatedly sexually abusing a girl over three years while she was in his care.Nechemya Weberman faces up to 117 years in prison after being convicted on 59 counts. The most serious charge, "course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree" carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.Weberman, a heavy-set 54-year-old with a traditional Hasidic beard and dark clothing, was led into custody after th

Representatives of South Korean professional baseball teams on Tuesday unanimously approved the expansion plan in the country's top league, bucking under pressure of players and fans and narrowly avoiding a possible cancellation of an annual offseason awards ceremony.Presidents of nine clubs in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) gave the green light to add a 10th team to their league at a board meeting.Earlier this month, the Korea Professional Baseball Players Association (KPBPA) had threate

Soldiers arrested Mali's prime minister and forced him to resign before dawn on Tuesday, showing that the military remains the real power in this troubled West African nation despite handing back authority to civilians after a coup in March.The prime minister's ouster comes as the United Nations considers backing a military intervention in Mali, a once-stable country now in constant turmoil. By late Tuesday, a new prime minister had been named, but the developments drew international rebuke and

Susana Trimarco was a housewife who fussed over her family and paid scant attention to the news until her daughter left for a doctor's appointment and never came back.After getting little help from police, Trimarco launched her own investigation into a tip that the 23-year-old was abducted and forced into sex slavery. Soon, Trimarco was visiting brothels seeking clues about her daughter and the search took an additional goal: rescuing sex slaves and helping them start new lives. What began as a

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was widely seen as the frontrunner to win the French presidency, until a New York hotel maid accused him of a sickening sexual assault.The 63-year-old economist agreed to pay his accuser damages on Monday, in a confidential settlement to her civil case against him, but their six-minute May 2011 encounter had already brought an end to his lofty ambitions.Before his fall DSK, as he is known in France, had been one of the world's most prominent public figures

Unionized subway workers called off plans to go on strike Tuesday after reaching a last-minute agreement with the transit system operators on retirement age and the severance pay system.The 8,118-member union member of Seoul Metro, a public corporation that runs Seoul subway lines one through four, were scheduled to walk later in the day after repeatedly failing to find middle ground on various outstanding issues despite mediation from the National Labor Relations Commission.The two sides had en

Korea's exports and imports exceeded $1 trillion on Monday, breaching the $1-trillion mark for the second consecutive year, the government said."The trade volume came to over $1 trillion as of 11:06 this morning," Kwon Pyung-oh, a spokesman for the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, told reporters.Exports have so far amounted to $512.8 billion with imports coming to about $487.2 billion as of Monday, according to the ministry.The country's trade volume topped $1 trillion for the first time in its hi

The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Mexican-American singing superstar Jenni Rivera was found in northern Mexico on Sunday and there are no apparent survivors, authorities said. Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said that ``everything points toward'' it being the U.S.-registered Learjet 25 carrying Rivera and six other people from Monterrey en route to Toluca, Mexico. The plane had gone missing after takeoff early Sunday. ``There is nothing recogni

Egypt's opposition said Sunday it will keep up protests against a referendum on a disputed draft constitution but stopped short of advocating either a boycott or a ``no'' vote less than a week before the ballot.The opposition was still pushing for Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to cancel the Dec. 15 referendum, saying they reject the process entirely and refuse to call it legitimate.The referendum over a disputed draft constitution has deeply polarized Egypt and sparked some of the bloodiest

Lionel Messi broke German great Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old record for most goals in a year by scoring for the 86th time in 2012 on Sunday.The Argentina forward scored twice to lead Barcelona to a 2-1 win at Real Betis in the Spanish league match. His first was an individual effort in the 16th minute to equal Mueller's mark, and he eclipsed the 1972 milestone with a familiar left-footed finish nine minutes later.``As I have said many times, the record is nice but the important thing is the victor

President John Dramani Mahama was declared the winner Sunday of Ghana's recent presidential election, according to provisional results, despite widespread technical glitches with the machines used to identify voters, and over the protest of the country's opposition, which alleges vote-rigging. Armored tanks surrounded Ghana's electoral commission and police barricaded the road around the electoral offices as the election body's chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan announced that Mahama had polled 5.5 mill

North Korean naval officers responsible for the communist country's deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010 have been awarded a hero's title, a defector claimed Friday."The captain, co-captain, chief engineer, and boatswain of the submarine which had attacked the warship Cheonan, were awarded the title of the DPRK (North Korea) hero sometime in Oct., 2010," Ahn Cheol-nam (alias) said during an event held by the Korea Peace Forum.Ahn, who previously worked at the North Korean cabinet, de

Japanese authorities issued a tsunami alert for the northeast coast Friday after a powerful 7.3-magnitude undersea earthquake struck, setting buildings in Tokyo swaying violently.Media reports said a one-meter-high wave could sweep ashore in an area badly hit by the March 2011 tsunami that devastated a large swathe of the northeast coast, killing thousands.Residents of at least one town, Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture, were advised to evacuate to higher ground, reports said, suggesting other

South Korea's pop sensation Psy will vie for three gongs at the 2012 World Music Awards (WMA) for his smash hit "Gangnam Style."The 34-year-old singer-rapper was nominated for best song, best video and best male artist, according to the WMA's official Web site on Friday.The music video for "Oppa You're My Style," a sequel to "Gangnam Style," was also listed as a candidate for the best video award.Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, was rocketed to global fame due to the Internet popularity of

Laos has ratified its membership of the World Trade Organization, state media said on Friday, the latest step in the small Southeast Asian nation's 15-year effort to join the global body.The Laotian parliament on Thursday formally gave its approval, paving the way for the country's entrance to the 157-member organisation in early 2013, according to a report in the government mouthpiece Vientiane Times.It said most lawmakers "supported the government's decision to join the WTO, saying it was a go

A medical doctor was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a retrial on Friday for murdering his pregnant wife.The 32-year-old doctor surnamed Baek initially received the same jail sentence by a district court and an appeals court for strangling his nine-month pregnant wife to death during an early-morning quarrel early last year.The Supreme Court, however, overturned an appeals court's conviction and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court for reconsideration, citing a lack of objective evidenc

A judge mulling whether to trim or overturn Apple's billion-dollar damages award against Samsung on Thursday called for a ceasefire in the ongoing patent war between the smartphone titans."I think it's time for global peace," US District Court Judge Lucy Koh said after legal teams from Apple and Samsung dueled for hours over post-verdict motions in her courtroom in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose."Let me hear if there is anything the court can do," she continued. "It would be good for consum

South Korea's state-run electricity distributor issued a power shortage alert Friday due to a surge in electricity consumption caused by cold temperatures.The Korea Power Exchange issued the "watch" warning, the fourth-highest level, at 11:25 a.m. as the country's electricity reserve dropped below 4 million kilowatts for more than 20 minutes.The company's "attention," the third-highest level, comes when the reserve level drops to between 2 million and 3 million kilowatts. The second-highest warn