Most Popular
-
1
Korea enters full election mode
-
2
Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
-
3
Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
-
4
Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
-
5
Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
-
6
Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
-
7
S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
-
8
Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
-
9
Kia EV9 wins world car of year
-
10
Korea misses out on global bond index boost
-
U.S. should not follow U.K. on genetic modification
Britain is about to become the only country in the world to explicitly allow the inheritable genetic modification of humans. With a vote Feb. 3 in the House of Commons, the country has paved the way for “three-person in vitro fertilization,” which combines genetic material from two women and a man.Creating high-tech procedures like this to help women have healthy babies seems worthy of unquestioning support. But it’s not so simple ― and promises to soon get more complicated.The techniques at imm
Feb. 12, 2015
-
Slowdown expected in Indonesian economy
Indonesia’s economic growth slowed last year to 5.02 percent from 5.58 percent in 2013, 6.3 percent in 2012 and 6.5 percent in 2011 weighed down by the global economic slump and weakening investment, the political noise during the election hurly burly and sluggish commodity export markets.A note of caution though is in order here as the Central Statistics Agency did a rebasing of the GDP series for last year, adjusting the reference year to 2010, which is normally done to reflect changes in pric
Feb. 12, 2015
-
China’s hardfisted expansionism must be replaced with rule of law
Aspiring to force an order of relations among nations in Asia that would center on China: This basic policy line of the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping will most likely remain unchanged.China’s gross domestic product, which became the world’s second largest by surpassing that of Japan five years ago, is now more than twice as much as Japan’s overall output of goods and services.Facing up to China-related challenges is a key issue for the international community.In recent years, si
Feb. 12, 2015
-
[Rafia Zakaria] Implications of Valentine’s Day
Like so much else in Pakistan, Valentine’s Day is a political event. As has been the case in the recent restive years, the arrival of the mid-February homage to love is accompanied by posters and billboards as well as terse castigations for would-be revelers. “Sorry Valentine’s Day: I am Muslim” said one billboard last year featuring a raised palm pushing away the notoriously red trinkets that signify the holiday.It’s not just signage of course that signifies the position in the social and polit
Feb. 12, 2015
-
We have to pay something to slow climate change
Are Americans worried about climate change? Do they want their government to regulate greenhouse gases? A recent survey ― from Stanford University, The New York Times and Resources for the Future ― found that strong majorities say “yes” to both questions.But there’s a big catch, which isn’t getting the attention it deserves: A strong majority also say that they oppose increasing taxes on either gasoline or electricity in order to reduce climate change. That’s important, because any serious effor
Feb. 11, 2015
-
[John F. Kerry] Challenging disorder around the world
A few years after World War II, when the North Atlantic Treaty was ratified in the United States and our relationship with Europe was cemented, President Harry Truman said simply, “The more closely the nations of the Atlantic community can work together for peace, the better for all people, everywhere.”The decades since have proven him right. And, as our transatlantic relationship has grown both stronger and more expansive, so has democracy, prosperity and stability in Europe, the United States
Feb. 11, 2015
-
Ensuring quality education for all children
Early reading skills can be a powerful predictor of life outcomes, ranging from school success to incarceration. So when dozens of schools in Camden, New Jersey, and Philadelphia see jumps in students’ reading skills, it’s worth asking why.The answer, according to early results from a rigorous study, is an effort called the Children’s Literacy Initiative which coaches and supports teachers and provides books tailored to teaching early reading. The expansion of this important work is supported by
Feb. 10, 2015
-
[Lee Jae-min] Here come the hearings again
Based on various interviews and stories, this is what generally happens when candidates for high-ranking government positions are notified of their selection. The bliss brought by the offer of a lifetime is short-lived, and thoughts of the dreadful confirmation hearings soon enter their minds.Having seen all the grilling and televised dissection of nominees’ lives, they face sleepless nights, agonizing over whether to accept the nomination. Objections from spouses and children, who are also fair
Feb. 10, 2015
-
Limiting the veto of U.N. Security Council
PARIS ― Back in 2001, France floated a proposal that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) should voluntarily refrain from using their veto power when dealing with mass-atrocity crimes. And now, in the lead-up to the commemoration of this year’s 70th anniversary of the U.N., French President Franois Hollande’s government is actively pursuing the idea again. Could such an arrangement really work?The predictable initial response is to dismiss the possibility out of
Feb. 10, 2015
-
A jarring Guantanamo story demands U.S. justice
When Nancy Hollander first met her new client he stood with arms out to embrace her. But he couldn’t move. She looked down and saw that he was shackled to the floor. They were in a visitor’s hut at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She stepped forward to complete the embrace and to begin what has become an extraordinary journey and an excruciating lesson in absurdity and injustice.In that session, her client gave Hollander 90 pages he had written by hand, the beginning of a book
Feb. 10, 2015
-
[Kim Seong-kon] The importance of equilibrium
The other day, I felt dizzy as I tried to get out of bed. Suddenly, the world around me seemed to spin so rapidly that I momentarily thought I was in the core of a vortex. Since I was on the verge of collapsing, I was terrified, thinking that it could be a warning sign of a coming stroke. Was my heart not strong enough to pump blood to my brain? Were my blood vessels clogged with cholesterol? A series of fearful questions arose in my mind. I rushed to the nearby doctor’s office five minutes befo
Feb. 10, 2015
-
U.S. airlines should quit whining
The CEOs of three big U.S. airlines met last week with the secretaries of Commerce and Transportation to complain about competitors from the Persian Gulf. Their main accusation was that Gulf carriers have been receiving billions of dollars in hidden subsidies from regional governments as their business in the United States has surged. What did they want? The very thing that airlines are always whining about: government regulation. But in this case, on their behalf. The Obama administration, they
Feb. 9, 2015
-
Obama’s Middle East fantasy
Way back in the George W. Bush administration, his progressive critics used to call themselves members of the “reality based community.” The phrase was first popularized by Ron Suskind in a lengthy criticism of Bush’s so-called war on terror. Bush and his team were blinded by the moral certainties of ideology, whereas their critics understood the world as it is.Reading through President Barack Obama’s new 2015 National Security Strategy, I think it’s time to resurrect the phrase, because this do
Feb. 9, 2015
-
Military pensions are ‘bloated’ for a reason
To an outsider, military pensions sound ridiculous; you can put in 20 years starting in your late teens or early 20s and “retire” at the time when most people are hitting their peak earning years. Obviously, that’s a very expensive benefit for the government to provide. Should we ratchet up the retirement age? Some economists think we should.People supporting the status quo will probably argue that the military is more physically demanding than most jobs, and therefore you have to expect people
Feb. 9, 2015
-
[Christine M. Flowers] On vaccines, village trumps misguided parents
When Hillary Clinton repeated the old adage that it takes a village to raise a child, a lot of people criticized her for promoting a vaguely socialist philosophy. Many were disturbed by the idea that children could be viewed as communal property and blamed Clinton for undermining the rights of parents to raise their own progeny as they ― and not the village elders ― saw fit.At the time, I found the whole controversy a bit comical. Having spent a good part of my own childhood with my maternal gra
Feb. 9, 2015
-
[Kim Hoo-ran] Ex-president’s selective memory
Too soon, too little.Former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir, “The President’s Time 2008-2013,” came too soon and falls short on honest reflection. The nearly 800-page tome released last week comes some 23 months after Lee’s departure from the Blue House. According to Kim Du-woo, presidential secretary for public relations during the Lee government, the work on the memoir began in May 2013.Lee and his team of close aides and former officials embarked on the project while their memory was still f
Feb. 5, 2015
-
Thailand tests ASEAN’s democratic ambitions
When members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said recently they “understand” the political developments in Thailand, they were using a diplomatic phrase that was not meant to convey acceptance of any justification for the military coup.Myanmar, as current chair of ASEAN, said it fully understood developments here. Vietnam followed the same line, saying its relations with Thailand would continue as usual.However, this “understanding” should not mean that ASEAN now ceases to pay atte
June 12, 2014
-
[Newsmaker] Chavez’s legacy could strain his heir
The heir to Hugo Chavez’s “Bolivarian Revolution” has secured a mandate to continue what his mentor started ― but only just. Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked vice president and a former bus driver and union leader, prevailed in Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday, beating pro-business rival Henrique Capriles by just 1.6 percent of the vote. Capriles has disputed the result, calling for a recount. The country’s electoral commission, stacked with Chavez supporters, has denied this reque
April 16, 2013
-
IMF rethink on capital controls a good start
The International Monetary Fund has rethought its doctrine on capital controls. The IMF, which previously favored unfettered flows of money across borders, now accepts that controls are sometimes necessary. This is a real improvement, yet it’s incomplete because it lacks a mechanism for supervision and enforcement. The fund can’t rectify that omission by itself. Member governments can and should. The previous orthodoxy said that restricting international flows of capital is almost always wrong:
Dec. 19, 2012
-
The first speech of Obama’s second term
“We are not as divided as our politics suggests,” said the man who had just been re-elected president with barely 50 percent of the vote. For Barack Obama, it was the best kind of rhetoric: a self-serving statement that also happens to be true. The president’s remarkable victory over Republican nominee Mitt Romney last night was a near-landslide in the Electoral College, especially if his lead in Florida becomes official (with almost all the results in, it stands at about 46,000 votes). And if h
Nov. 8, 2012