Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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[Andrew Sheng] What can we do about inequality?
The New Year is a time to think about what we can do better this coming year. Last year, rock-star French economist Thomas Piketty’s book on “Capital in the 21st Century” signaled the growing sense of inequality in an age of plenty. When 0.1 percent of the population own as much as 90 percent of the rest of the population, something is seriously wrong with capitalism. However bad the inequality, it is not the static status quo that is the problem. It is the dynamic expectation that the system ca
Jan. 1, 2015
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Pakistan’s war against terrorism
It is a wake-up call, they say. A tragedy so awful the mind reels at the thought of it; the soul curdles at the sight of it. We’ve had many such wake-up calls.We’ve had the Parade Lane mosque massacre, the Karsaz blasts, the Marriot bombing, the recurring apocalypses that the Hazaras have faced, the steady drip-drip of killings so many in number that it becomes impossible to even list them.We wake, like sleepwalkers jolted into reality by a fall; shocked to find ourselves muddied and bloodied, w
Jan. 1, 2015
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Kim Jong-un meets the Streisand effect
Since its Christmas Day release on digital networks and in certain independent movie theaters, “The Interview” has pulled in $18 million. More than 2 million people have downloaded the movie about a nonsensical plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader ― and that’s before Apple’s iTunes adds the film to its streaming and download catalogs Monday.Kim Jong-un, meet Barbra Streisand. More specifically, meet the Streisand effect.Unfamiliar with the phrase? According to Forbes, it is “an increasingly
Dec. 31, 2014
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Financing climate safety in 2015
NEW YORK ― The purpose of the global financial system is to allocate the world’s savings to their most productive uses. When the system works properly, these savings are channeled into investments that raise living standards; when it malfunctions, as in recent years, savings are channeled into real-estate bubbles and environmentally harmful projects, including those that exacerbate human-induced climate change.2015 will be a turning point in the effort to create a global financial system that co
Dec. 31, 2014
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Global implications of Putin’s winning streak
Since Russia invaded Crimea last summer, the West has relied on a strategy of economic sanctions and international isolation to compel the Kremlin to withdraw its support for the rebels in eastern Ukraine. But Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent series of diplomatic successes ― in particular, with Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan ― has all but negated the effectiveness of this strategy.To be sure, Putin was shunned at last month’s G-20 summit in Brisbane, with the Australian hosts and Weste
Dec. 31, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Greeting the Year of the Ram and the Sheep
The Year of the Ram is dawning. Chinese zodiac websites are calling 2015 the “Year of the Sheep.” However, the word “sheep” in English has negative connotations of obedience, meekness and submissiveness. On the other hand, the ram, with its dashing posture and powerful horns, is a symbol of determination, initiative and leadership. Furthermore, in ancient Egypt, the “ram’s horn” was revered as a symbol of fertility. That is why there are many paintings of a ram’s horn overflowing with various fr
Dec. 31, 2014
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Say goodbye to Chinese-made steel
These are not the best of times to be one of China’s massive, state-owned steel mills. The domestic economy is slowing, competition is increasing, and there’s widespread disgust and impatience with the smog pouring out of their stacks. In short, their lucrative business model for the past three decades is slowly dying. So what’s a manager of a Chinese steel mill to do?One surprisingly popular option is to bid China goodbye. In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co. Ltd, a provincial-owned company and
Dec. 31, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] Easy now, but difficult later
When I first went to the United States to study in the summer of 1998, every trip to fast food joints was full of stress. I managed to submit my order, but had difficulty understanding what the clerks said to me. Only after several repetitions and after my face had reddened did they make themselves understood. Spending almost 20 years studying English at that point including experience at an English-related workplace did not save me from embarrassment. Indeed, for many of us here, the struggle w
Dec. 29, 2014
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Threat of Europe’s massive shadow budget
MUNICH ― More details about the European Commission’s 315 billion euros ($390 billion) investment plan for 2015-2017 have finally come to light. The program, announced by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in November, amounts to a massive shadow budget, twice as large as the European Union’s annual official budget, that will finance public investment projects and ultimately help governments circumvent debt limits established in the Stability and Growth Pact.The borrowing will be
Dec. 29, 2014
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[Clive Crook] The Year of Piketty worth another reflection
Last month the Financial Times chose Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” a study of the underlying dynamics of inequality, as its Business Book of the Year. The honor rather understates the book’s impact. Forget “business book.” “Capital” was the non-fiction publishing sensation of the year, and maybe of the decade or more. When has a work of its kind ever been so rapturously received?Yet what a perplexing phenomenon this was. Now that the acclaim and the subsequent backlash
Dec. 29, 2014
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China steps in as world’s new bank
Thanks to China, Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund, Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank and Takehiko Nakao of the Asian Development Bank may no longer have much meaningful work to do.Beijing’s move to bail out Russia, on top of its recent aid for Venezuela and Argentina, signals the death of the post-war Bretton Woods world. It’s also marks the beginning of the end for America’s linchpin role in the global economy and Japan’s influence in Asia.What is China’s new Asian Infrastructu
Dec. 29, 2014
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10 years on from tsunami ― are we safer now?
Most of us can clearly recall where we were on Dec. 26, 2004, when a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the northern coast of Sumatra triggered a deadly tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean, killing over 226,000 people and causing massive destruction along coastal areas of 14 countries. The full horror of the disaster unfolded on TV screens around the world. As we mark 10 years since the biggest disaster in living memory, it is important to reflect on what the tsunami has taught us and whether c
Dec. 29, 2014
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Resilience alone won’t save Pakistan
In the aftermath of the most deadly terrorist attack in Pakistan’s history, it’s worth asking a difficult yet essential question.A question about resilience.Resilience is a trait often used to describe Pakistanis, and rightly so. No matter what’s thrown at them, Pakistanis persevere.Convulsed by catastrophic floods with no visible government rescue efforts? They plan and execute their own assistance efforts.Faced with record gas shortages during the cold winter months? They fashion homemade pump
Dec. 28, 2014
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[James K. Boyce] Protect money or people?
At the latest round of international climate talks this month in Lima, Peru, melting glaciers in the Andes and recent droughts provided a fitting backdrop for the negotiators’ recognition that it is too late to prevent climate change, no matter how fast we ultimately act to limit it. They now confront an issue that many had hoped to avoid: adaptation.Adapting to climate change will carry a high price tag. Sea walls are needed to protect coastal areas against floods, such as those in the New York
Dec. 28, 2014
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You’re not disabled just because you eat junk
The decision by Europe’s highest court that obesity can be a disability will only make a bad problem worse. Too many people in rich countries are already overweight. Giving them legal grounds to feel righteous about their condition, regardless of its causes, will almost certainly expand their ranks.The case brought to the European Court of Justice involved Danish child-minder Karsten Kaltoft, fired by the municipality of Billund in 2010 after 15 years of service. The town attributed the firing t
Dec. 28, 2014
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The $4.3 billion shrug
LONDON ― In November, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority announced a settlement in which six banks would be fined a total of $4.3 billion for manipulating the foreign-exchange market. And yet share prices barely reacted. Why?The nefarious practices and management failings uncovered during the yearlong investigation that led to the fines were shocking. Semiliterate email and chat-room exchanges among venal traders revealed brazen conspiracies to rig the afternoon exchange-rate “fix”
Dec. 28, 2014
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[Kavi Chongkittavorn] Time to get serious with ‘ASEAN Lane’
Recently, the bosses at Kuala Lumpur International Airport inaugurated an “ASEAN Lane” for the group’s passport holders, amid colorful banners and balloons. The special lane, covered with orange carpet, immediately drew a long queue of enthusiastic visitors willing to wait as they were given a healthy dose of special treatment by the ASEAN feeling. In contrast, early this month the heads of Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport decided to dismantle two ASEAN and one ACMECS (Ayeyawaddy-Ch
Dec. 28, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Elizabeth Warren’s jihad
WASHINGTON ― The revival of the U.S. financial system after the crash of 2008 is arguably the Obama administration’s biggest domestic policy success. But Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in her jihad against Wall Street, seems determined to devalue this accomplishment ― and to make financial expertise a mark of shame for Democrats, rather than a source of pride.Warren’s current target is Antonio Weiss, the administration’s nominee for undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance. Weiss’s chief defe
Dec. 26, 2014
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The battle for Santa Claus’ home
STOCKHOLM ― A couple of years ago, a Canadian minister proudly declared that Santa Claus was a citizen of Canada. After all, his home and toy factory are at the North Pole, which, according to the minister’s interpretation, belongs to Canada.Though Santa Claus has not commented on the matter, it is now clear that he could choose several passports when he travels the world on December 24th. In 2007, a privately funded mini-submarine planted a Russian flag directly beneath his alleged home. And tw
Dec. 26, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Democracy’s broad spectrum
North Koreans call their state a people’s democratic republic. “People’s” is redundant, as democracy is a system of the people, by the people, for the people, to quote Abraham Lincoln. The DPRK, however, is essentially a totalitarian dynasty. Anyway, it is apparent that the Northerners wish to have their state classified as a democracy. If we respect their wish, the Korean Peninsula has a really broad spectrum of democracy pursued and practiced by various political groups with the North’s at the
Dec. 25, 2014