Three small Canadian oil companies agree to merge






CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – A trio of small oil and gas companies said on Thursday they have agreed to combine to form a mid-sized Canadian producer, focusing on light crude in Alberta and paying dividends.


Pace Oil and Gas Ltd , AvenEx Energy Corp and Charger Energy Corp said they would offer new shares in a combined operation known as Spyglass Resources Corp that will produce about 18,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.






It will be led by former Provident Energy executives, Tom Buchanan as chief executive and Dan O’Byrne as president, the companies said.


Combined properties are in such Alberta geological zones as Halkirk-Provost Viking, Randell Slave Point and Gilwood and the Pembina Cardium.


Under the deal, 1.3 Spyglass shares would be exchanged for each Pace share, one Spyglass share for each AvenEx share, and 0.18 Spyglass shares for each Charger share.


The transaction values Pace shares at C$ 4.32 each, AvenEx shares at C$ 3.32 each, and Charger shares at 60 Canadian cents each, the firms said.


“The combined asset base features mature, low decline properties and a balanced commodity profile coupled with the light oil development opportunities needed to sustain the model,” Buchanan said in a statement.


The companies said recent deep discounts on Canadian heavy crude show the value of assets producing light oil, which has been much closer to U.S. benchmark prices.


Capital spending for 2013 is budgeted at C$ 80 million to C$ 90 million (US$ 81 million to C$ 91 million).


The companies said they would hold meetings for their shareholders in February to vote on the transaction. Two-thirds of each company’s shareholders must approve the deal for it to proceed, they said.


The deal is expected to close in February.


(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)


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Snow, high winds expected as storm takes aim at Chicago

Chicago's morning weather forecast. (WGN - Chicago)








A winter storm warning has been issued for the Chicago metropolitan area, and the National Weather Service says winds up to 60 mph could whip snow into near blizzard conditions in some spots during the evening commute.

Rain is expected to turn to snow around 3 p.m. as temperatures drop and winds pick up, the weather service said. The heaviest snow will fall from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. with wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph. Three to 7 inches is expected in the far northwest suburbs, 2 to 4 inches in Chicago and 1 to 3 inches in the south and southwest suburbs.

But the weather service says the winds will be the real problem. "We may not get a whole lot of snow but the potential for snowing, drifting and poor visibility is very high," weather service meteorologist Mark Ratzer said.

In its storm warning, the weather service said the greatest chance of near white-out conditions is near the shoreline in Lake and Porter counties in Indiana. The storm warning is in effect from 3 p.m. until 3 a.m. Friday.

In western Illinois and Wisconsin, a blizzard warning is in effect with as much as a foot of snow forecast. Snow could fall 1 to 2 inches an hour around Rockford late in the afternoon, the weather service said.

To the south, a high wind advisory has been issued for Kankakee County. And in Indiana, a lakeshore flood warning is in effect for Lake and Porter counties.

The storm will end a record stretch of 290 days without snow in the Chicago area. This will also be the lastest that the city has seen its first measurable snowfall.

Delays and cancellations were already being reported at O'Hare International Airport. FlightStats, which collects data from the Federal Aviation Administration and airports, reported 142 cancellations and 131 delays at O'Hare.

United Airlines said it is waiving change fees for travelers scheduled to fly out of O'Hare on Thursday who want to change their plans.


ComEd said it was bracing for power outages because of the storm. The company said it was preparing additional crews and equipment and asking for help from other utilities to respond quickly to outages.

ComEd Vice President Terence Donnelly said the storm was “expected to be especially damaging” to the company's power system because of the combination of wind, snow and ice.

The approaching storm dropped nearly a foot of snow in Des Moines. The airport at Creston, Iowa, recorded the highest winds, with a gust of 53 mph.

On the southern edge of the storm system, high winds damaged homes and downed trees in central Arkansas, the weather service said. A powerful storm peeled the roofs off buildings and toppled trucks in Mobile, Ala., but injured no one. Tornado warnings remained in effect in parts of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama early Thursday.

Transportation officials shut down parts of Interstate 29 in Missouri early Thursday, and Interstate 80 in Nebraska remained closed due to blowing snow.


Contributing: Associated Press


chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @chicagobreaking






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Wall Street steadies after two-day rally; Oracle gains

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday as investors found scant reason to continue buying following the best two-day rally for the S&P in a month.


The Nasdaq notched slight gains, helped by technology shares following strong results at Oracle Corp .


The S&P added 2.3 percent over the past two sessions, the first time it has notched two straight days of 1 percent gains since late July. The advance came as the latest offers in ongoing U.S. budget negotiations supported hopes for a deal.


President Barack Obama's most recent offer to Republicans in the ongoing fiscal talks made concessions on taxes and social programs spending, amid concerns from Senate Democrats. House Speaker John Boehner said he remained hopeful about an agreement, though the offer was "not there yet."


"We're starting to see signs that there will be a deal on the 'fiscal cliff,' but after two strong days and with a fair amount of uncertainty left, people are just taking money off the table," said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia.


Tech shares <.gspt> were the top gainers of the day after Oracle reported earnings that beat expectations on strong software sales growth. Shares of Oracle rose 3.7 percent to $34.08, making it the biggest percentage gainer on the S&P 500.


FedEx Corp reported second-quarter revenue that beat expectations, but said earnings had been impacted by Superstorm Sandy. Shares rose 2.3 percent to $94.44.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 2.60 points, or 0.02 percent, to 13,353.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dropped 0.52 points, or 0.04 percent, to 1,446.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 3.08 points, or 0.10 percent, to 3,057.61.


Equities have had difficulty maintaining strong gains amid concerns over the "fiscal cliff," a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts many fear could push the economy into recession if they take effect next year.


Markets have been buoyed in recent weeks by any indication that an agreement between policy makers over the budget may be reached, with banks and energy shares - groups that outperform during periods of economic expansion - leading gains.


Still, trading has been light ahead of the holidays, and with investors' focus on the budget talks.


Knight Capital Group Inc climbed 6.3 percent to $3.54 after it agreed to be bought by Getco Holdings in a deal valued at $1.4 billion. The stock, which nearly collapsed after a trading error in August, remains down about 76 percent so far this year.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Penn State voted AP sports story of year again


NEW YORK (AP) — The Penn State child sex abuse scandal was selected as the sports story of the year by U.S. editors and news directors in an annual vote conducted by The Associated Press.


The news broke in November 2011, with a grand jury report outlining charges against Jerry Sandusky, and the outrage that followed led to the firing of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno. But the aftershocks were felt long into 2012: Sandusky was convicted in June of assaulting 10 boys, and the NCAA handed down brutal sanctions in July.


In both years, the scandal was picked as the top sports story, the first time since the AP began conducting its annual vote in 1990 that the same story was selected twice in a row. The results of this year's tally were announced Wednesday.


Even before the Sandusky trial, the State College community had absorbed another huge blow as Paterno died Jan. 22 at age 85 of lung cancer.


The year ended with a small step to normalcy — joy on the football field. Under new coach Bill O'Brien, the Nittany Lions won eight of their last 10 games to finish 8-4, capped by an overtime victory at home over Wisconsin.


There were 157 ballots submitted from U.S. news organizations. The voters were asked to rank the top 10 sports stories of the year, with the first-place story getting 10 points, the second-place story receiving nine points, and so on.


The Penn State saga received 1,420 points and 109 first-place votes. The No. 2 sports story, Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, had 10 first-place votes and 1,008 points.


Football's popularity, college and pro, was unmistakable with seven of the top 10 stories. But only two of them involved the action on the field.


Here are 2012's top 10 stories:


1. PENN STATE: Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator whose crimes led to such devastation for his victims and for his former employer, was found guilty on 45 of 48 counts. In October, the 68-year-old was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. His conviction provided some closure, but a messy aftermath remained. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh released the results of his investigation July 12, saying Paterno and other top school officials covered up allegations against Sandusky. The NCAA used that report as a basis for its sanctions announced later that month, which included a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban and scholarship reductions.


2. LANCE ARMSTRONG: In February, federal prosecutors closed an investigation into whether the star cyclist doped. That turned out to be only a temporary reprieve for a once-revered figure. In June, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs, and in August, when he dropped his fight against the charges, USADA ordered his record seven Tour titles wiped out. A report released in October laid out vivid details of the evidence. The year ends with Armstrong dropped by many of the companies he endorsed and no longer formally involved with the cancer charity he founded, Livestrong.


3. NFL BOUNTIES: This much is clear: Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire season and New Orleans started 0-4 to quickly fall out of playoff contention. Much else about the bounty scandal remains in dispute. Players deny the NFL's assertions of a pay-for-injury program. On Dec. 11, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue overturned his successor's suspensions of four players but endorsed the findings of the investigation under Roger Goodell.


4. FOOTBALL CONCUSSIONS: The deaths of NFL greats Alex Karras — who suffered from dementia — and Junior Seau — who committed suicide — were grim reminders of the angst over head injuries in the sport and their possible consequences. Thousands of retired players have sued the league, alleging the NFL failed to protect them from the dangers of concussions.


5. LONDON OLYMPICS: Michael Phelps retired from swimming after setting an Olympic record with his 22nd medal at a Summer Games bursting with memorable performances. Usain Bolt became the first man to successfully defend both the 100- and 200-meter dash titles. And the host country racked up 65 medals in an Olympics so successful for Britain that it barely even rained.


6. COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS: Instead of complaining about the BCS, soon we can moan about the selection committee. After years of carping, fans finally got a playoff system, which will debut after the 2014 season. The four-team bracket will feature semifinals and a title game to determine a national champion.


7. REPLACEMENT OFFICIALS: Fans and pundits predicted a blown call would decide a critical game when the NFL started the season with replacement officials. Sure enough, in Week 3, on the national stage of "Monday Night Football," a missed offensive pass interference penalty and a questionable touchdown catch handed the Seattle Seahawks a win over the Green Bay Packers. Two days later, the league resolved its labor dispute with the regular refs.


8. SUPER GIANTS: A team that had been 7-7 upset the top-seeded Green Bay Packers on the road in the playoffs, needed overtime to beat the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC title game, then came from behind to defeat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, 21-17, an outcome strangely similar to their matchup four years earlier. Eli Manning won his second Super Bowl MVP award.


9. SUMMITT RETIRES: Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, retired from the Tennessee bench in April at age 59, less than eight months after revealing she had early-onset dementia. Longtime assistant Holly Warlick took over the Lady Vols. Summitt was 1,098-208 with eight national titles in 38 seasons.


10. MANNING'S RESURGENCE: Peyton Manning was released from the Indianapolis Colts in March after missing last season because of neck surgery, the future uncertain for the four-time MVP. John Elway and the Broncos gambled that he still had some championship play left in that right arm, and so far it's looking like a brilliant move as Denver won the AFC West.


___


AP Projects Editor Brooke Lansdale contributed to this report.


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The Psychology of Mass Shootings






After the horrifying shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school last week, people seem to be asking the same questions: What kind of person could open fire on innocent children? Why do such incidents keep happening? And what can we do to prevent such crimes?


We may never know what spurred the man who killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., on Friday, and whether he could have been stopped.






But psychologists have created profiles of mass shooters, and many common themes — and even warning signs — emerge.


“In most cases, there’s a long trail leading up to the actual act of violence,” said Peter Langman, a psychologist in Allenton, Penn., who has studied mass shooters.


Yet despite a list of red flags, psychologists say, it is maddeningly difficult to separate the next school shooter from the millions of other disaffected students who may never go on to kill.


“There are certainly a lot of people who have a lot of things go wrong, and they’re not committing mass murders,” said Mary Muscari, a forensic nurse at Binghamton University in New York who has researched mass killers. “Even when you look at mental illness, most people with mental illness are not violent,” Muscari told LiveScience in July after the Aurora, Colo., movie theater killings.


Profile of a shooter


Many mass shootings are motivated by revenge or envy. That’s why many take place at a school or a workplace where shooters felt rejected, said Tony Farrenkopf, a forensic psychologist in Portland, Ore., who has created psychological profiles of mass shooters.


In addition, killers often exhibit risk factors that are generally tied to criminality: a history of abuse or ineffective parenting, a tendency to set fires or hurt animals, a sadistic streak, and self-centeredness and a lack of compassion.


“To most of us, children are beautiful little creatures that we love,” Farrenkopf told LiveScience. “So why would someone target them?”


In order to kill innocent little children, it’s possible the killer lacked compassion or empathy for them, instead seeing them as symbols of something he wanted to obliterate, Langman said.


School shooters often harbor anger and paranoid delusions, have low self-esteem and hang out with an outcast group, Farrenkopf said. And there is usually a triggering event — either a lost job or a falling out with a girlfriend — that finally makes them snap, he said. [10 Surprising Facts About the Teen Brain]


They also tend to be obsessed with guns, violent video games or movies.


In retrospect, investigators uncover warning signs, such as trying to recruit a peer or writing hateful stories, Langman told LiveScience.


“In many cases, students actually come out and say exactly what they’re going to do: ‘I’m going to come back with a gun and kill all of you,’” Langman said.


Toxic culture


Overwhelmingly, mass shooters are men, Langman said. That’s no surprise when you consider their self-professed motives, he said.


“These kids often feel very powerless. The one way they can feel like they’re somebody, that they’re a man, is to get a gun and kill people.”


Our culture and media (such as violent movies and video games) only reinforce the notion that manhood is about attaining power, and social and sexual status. Violence is glorified as a way to get that power, he said.


“There is that cultural script that a lot of kids are very influenced by. We don’t have a lot of alternative cultural scripts for males in terms of popular media,” he said. [The History of Human Aggression]


Society doesn’t necessarily teach constructive ways to deal with depression and disappointment, either. And we provide very little to support to people at risk before they become violent, Farrenkopf said.


Each mass shooting also holds the potential to spawn others, because other would-be shooters see stories about the crimes in the newspaper, and may want to emulate them, Farrenkopf said.


No crystal ball


Despite a fairly consistent profile, psychologists can’t predict who will kill. Millions of people will feel disaffected and vengeful, and may even lack empathy, but the vast majority would never shoot defenseless, 6-year-old children, Langman said.


And if fascination with violent media and guns were predictive, the average ninth-grade boy could be considered at risk.


“It’s only these kids who are really fundamentally struggling with their own identities,” he said. “Those really vulnerable kids who are the ones who will take a movie or video game that 10 million other kids would watch and play and take as a guide for how to live their lives.”


Even so, psychologists stress the importance of preventing these massacres before they happen. One step in that direction might be to help the kids who do feel the burden of social isolation and feelings of insignificance, regardless of whether they will ever snap.


“It’s not so much to catch shooters, because we know that’s very difficult, but actually to address very widespread problems that reach millions of kids,” Katherine Newman, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, told LiveScience in July.


Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+


Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Arming teachers would halt massacres




William Bennett argues that schools would be safer with at least one armed person there who is well-trained in firearms use.




STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • William Bennett: Arming, training one person in a school could help prevent shootings

  • He says armed people have stopped instances of mass killing

  • Killers may target places where they know they can't be shot down, Bennett says

  • Bennett: Guns help prevent crime and improve public safety




Editor's note: William J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.


(CNN) -- On NBC's "Meet the Press" this past Sunday, I was asked how we can make our schools safer and prevent another massacre like Sandy Hook from happening again. I suggested that if one person in the school had been armed and trained to handle a firearm, it might have prevented or minimized the massacre.


"And I'm not so sure -- and I'm sure I'll get mail for this -- I'm not so sure I wouldn't want one person in a school armed, ready for this kind of thing," I said. "The principal lunged at this guy. The school psychologist lunged at the guy. Has to be someone who's trained. Has to be someone who's responsible."



William Bennett

William Bennett



Well, I sure did get mail. Many people agreed with me and sent me examples of their son or daughter's school that had armed security guards, police officers or school employees on the premises. Many others vehemently disagreed with me, and one dissenter even wrote that the blood of the Connecticut victims was ultimately on the hands of pro-gun rights advocates.


To that person I would ask: Suppose the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary who was killed lunging at the gunman was instead holding a firearm and was well trained to use it. Would the result have been different? Or suppose you had been in that school when the killer entered, would you have preferred to be armed?


Evidence and common sense suggest yes.



In 2007, a gunman entered New Life Church in Colorado Springs and shot and killed two girls. Jeanne Assam, a former police officer stationed as a volunteer security guard at the church, drew her firearm, shot and wounded the gunman before he could kill anyone else. The gunman then killed himself.


In 1997, high school student Luke Woodham stabbed his mother to death and then drove to Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, and shot and killed two people. He then got back in his car to drive to Pearl Junior High to continue his killings, but Joel Myrick, the assistant principal, ran to his truck and grabbed his pistol, aimed it at Woodham and made him surrender.


These are but a few of many examples that the best deterrent of crime when it is occurring is effective self-defense. And the best self-defense against a gunman has proved to be a firearm.


LZ Granderson: Teachers with guns is a crazy idea










And yet, there is a near impenetrable belief among anti-gun activists that guns are the cause of violence and crime. Like Frodo's ring in "The Lord of The Rings," they believe that guns are agencies of corruption and corrupt the souls of whoever touches them. Therefore, more guns must lead to more crime.


But the evidence simply doesn't support that. Take the controversial concealed-carry permit issue, for example.


In a recent article for The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, by no means an avowed gun-rights advocate, declared, "There is no proof to support the idea that concealed-carry permit holders create more violence in society than would otherwise occur; they may, in fact, reduce it."


Goldberg cites evidence from Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA, that concealed-carry permit holders actually commit crimes at a lower rate than the general population.


The General Accountability Office recently found that the number of concealed weapon permits in America has surged to approximately 8 million.


According to anti-gun advocates, such an increase in guns would cause a cause a corresponding increase in gun-related violence or crime. In fact, the opposite is true. The FBI reported this year that violent crime rates in the U.S. are reaching historic lows.


This comes in spite of the fact that the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004. Supporters of the ban (not including anti-gun groups who thought it didn't go far enough in the first place) claimed that gun crime would skyrocket when the ban was lifted. That wasn't true at all.


In fact, after the expiration of the ban, The New York Times, whose editorial pages are now awash with calls for more gun restrictions, wrote in early 2005, "Despite dire predictions that America's streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban in September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons' sales, gun makers and sellers say. It also has not caused any noticeable increase in gun crime in the past seven months, according to several city police departments."


But let's take the issue one step further and examine places where all guns, regardless of make or type, are outlawed: gun-free zones. Are gun-free zones truly safe from guns?


John Lott, economist and gun-rights advocate, has extensively studied mass shootings and reports that, with just one exception, the attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011, every public shooting since 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns. The massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine, Virginia Tech and the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, all took place in gun-free zones.


Do you own a gun that fell under the now-expired federal weapons ban?


These murderers, while deranged and deeply disturbed, are not dumb. They shoot up schools, universities, malls and public places where their victims cannot shoot back. Perhaps "gun-free zones" would be better named "defenseless victim zones."


To illustrate the absurdity of gun-free zones, Goldberg dug up the advice that gun-free universities offer to its students should a gunman open fire on campus. West Virginia University tells students to "act with physical aggression and throw items at the active shooter." These items could include "student desks, keys, shoes, belts, books, cell phones, iPods, book bags, laptops, pens, pencils, etc." Such "higher education" would be laughable if it weren't true and funded by taxpayer dollars.


Eliminating or restricting firearms for public self-defense doesn't make our citizens safer; it makes them targets. If we're going to have a national debate about guns, it should be acknowledged that guns, in the hands of qualified and trained individuals subject to background checks, prevent crime and improve public safety.


Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter


Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of William J. Bennett.






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Snow, high winds -- but maybe a white Christmas, too

A snow storm is headed for the Chicago area and WGN's Tom Skilling tells you what you can expect. (Posted Dec. 19th, 2012)








A winter storm whipped by high winds is expected to hit the Chicago area just in time for the evening rush hour Thursday, dumping up to 4 inches here but maybe a foot or more in Wisconsin where a blizzard warning has been issued.

But on the bright side (for some, at least), the National Weather Service is giving us a 30 percent chance of a white Christmas next week.

Thursday will begin with rain but that will change to snow around 6 p.m. as temperatures plunge. Winds will gust at 50 mph and wind chills will drop into the single digits, according to the weather service. There could even be thunder snow, it said.

The snow will continue past midnight and there could still be flurries for the morning commute Friday.

Chicago and most of the collar counties could see 2 to 4 inches of snow, with 1 to 2 inches south of Joliet and 4 to 6 inches near Rockford and Dixon, the weather service said. This would be the first measurable snowfall for Chicago this season -- and the latest it has ever occurred.

The worst of the storm will be north and west of Chicago: Both the Davenport and Milwaukee offices of the weather service have issued blizzard warnings.

“Winter’s held off so long, it’s going to come here with a bang,” weather service meteorologist Jamie Enderlen said.

In Wisconsin, the heaviest snow is expected to arrive after midnight and continue throughout the day on Thursday. Wind gusts of up to 45 mph by Thursday afternoon should make travel treacherous.

The weather service posted blizzard warnings for at least eight south central counties for Thursday afternoon. Forecasters say it could be the biggest snowstorm to hit the state since the Groundhog Day blizzard last year. That storm dumped 1 to 2 feet of snow in southeastern Wisconsin.

WGN-Channel 9 meteorologist Tom Skilling warns that the lack of snow to date over a wide swath of the Midwest, including Chicago, means there's no residual ice-deterring chemicals on the road which "could lead to especially icy road surfaces, producing hazardous travel conditions."


Skilling also reports that Chicago's first measurable snow of the season is usually a minor event, totaling just a few tenths of an inch and not causing any problems. But a check of the city's snow archives dating back to 1884 found that Chicago has logged 12 first measurable snowfalls of 3 inches or more.

The largest was 4.8 inches on Nov. 15, 1940 that helped boost that month to the city's snowiest November on record. The month ended with 14.8 inches of snow. The 1940-41 snow season went on to produce a robust 52.5 inches, well above the city's current 36.7 inch normal.


The forecast for next week is a little cheerier. For Christmas Day, the weather service says it will be in the middle 30s with a 30 percent chance of light snow.

chicagobreaking@tribune.comTwitter: @chicagobreaking






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Park wins South Korea presidency, to be first woman leader


SEOUL (Reuters) - The daughter of a former military ruler won South Korea's presidential election on Wednesday and will become the country's first female leader, saying she would work to heal a divided society.


The 60-year old conservative, Park Geun-hye, will return to the presidential palace in Seoul where she served as her father's first lady in the 1970s, after her mother was assassinated by a North Korean-backed gunman.


With more than 88 percent of the votes counted, Park led with 51.6 percent to 48 percent for her left-wing challenger, human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in, giving her an unassailable lead that forced Moon to concede.


Her raucous, jubilant supporters braved sub-zero temperatures to chant her name and wave South Korean flags outside her house. When she reached her party headquarters, Park was greeted with shouts of "president".


An elated Park reached into the crowd to grasp hands of supporters wearing red scarves, her party's color.


"This is a victory brought by the people's hope for overcoming crisis and for economic recovery," she told supporters at a rally in central Seoul.


Park will take office for a mandatory single, five-year term in February and will face an immediate challenge from a hostile North Korea and have to deal with an economy in which annual growth rates have fallen to about 2 percent from an average of 5.5 percent in its decades of hyper-charged growth.


She is unmarried and has no children, saying that her life will be devoted to her country.


The legacy of her father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled for 18 years and transformed the country from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War into an industrial power-house, still divides Koreans.


For many conservatives, he is South Korea's greatest president and the election of his daughter would vindicate his rule. His opponents dub him a "dictator" who trampled on human rights and stifled dissent.


"I trust her. She will save our country," said Park Hye-sook, 67, who voted in an affluent Seoul district, earlier in the day.


"Her father ... rescued the country," said the housewife and grandmother, who is no relation to the candidate.


For younger people, the main concern is the economy and the creation of well-paid jobs in a country where income inequalities have grown in recent years.


"Now a McDonald's hamburger is over 5,000 Korean won ($4.66) so you can't buy a McDonald's burger with your hourly pay. Life is hard already for our two-member family but if there were kids, it would be much tougher," said Cho Hae-ran, 41, who is married and works at a trading company.


Park has spent 15 years in politics as a leading legislator in the ruling Saenuri party, although her policies are sketchy.


She has a "Happiness Promotion Committee" and her campaign was launched as a "National Happiness Campaign", a slogan she has since changed to "A Prepared Woman President".


She has cited former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a tough proponent of free markets, as her role model as well as Angela Merkel, the conservative German chancellor who is Europe's most powerful leader.


NEGOTIATE WITH NORTH


One of those who voted on Wednesday was Shin Dong-hyuk, a defector from North Korea who is the only person known to have escaped from a slave labor camp there.


He Tweeted that he was voting "for the first time in my life", although he didn't say for whom.


Park has said she would negotiate with Kim Jong-un, the youthful leader of North Korea who recently celebrated a year in office, but wants the South's isolated and impoverished neighbor to give up its nuclear weapons program as a precondition for aid, something Pyongyang has refused to do.


The two Koreas remain technically at war after an armistice ended their conflict. Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the North's current leader, ordered several assassination attempts on Park's father, one of which resulted in her mother being shot to death in 1974.


Park herself met Kim Jong-un's father, the late leader Kim Jong-il, and declared he was "comfortable to talk to" and he seemed to be someone "who would keep his word".


The North successfully launched a long-range rocket last week in what critics said was a test of technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile and has recently stepped up its attacks on Park, describing her as holding a "grudge" and seeking "confrontation", code for war.


Park remains a firm supporter of a trade pact with the United States that and looks set to continue the free-market policies of her predecessor, although she has said she would seek to spread wealth more evenly.


The biggest of all the chaebol, Samsung Group, which produces the world's top selling smartphone as well as televisions, computer chips and ships, has sales equivalent to about a fifth of South Korea's national output.


(Additional reporting by Jumin Park, Seongbin Kang, Narae Kim, SoMang Yang; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Robert Birsel)



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