Most Popular
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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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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[Robert J. Fouser] Emigrating for English
During five weeks of living in the Korean community near Flushing area of New York City, I often wondered why the Korean residents gave up their life in Korea for a new life in the U.S. Many of the Koreans work long hours running small businesses. New York City is a wonderland for tourists, but for residents it is an expensive, crowded place just like Seoul. Over time, I began to ask Koreans what brought them to the U.S., and the answer was surprising similar: education. When I asked what was so
Dec. 9, 2014
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Thirty years on, Bhopal still cries out for answers
The march of time can be cruel. As months and years go by it erodes even the most horrifying events until they are dulled of their searing poignancy.Even one of the worst industrial disasters of our time fades from the world’s consciousness after decades have gone by. Thirty years ago, on the night of Dec. 2, 1984, the city of Bhopal, India, was forever identified with catastrophic tragedy. A toxic gas leak from a Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) plant in the center of the city claimed the lives
Dec. 9, 2014
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[Sohn Jie-ae] Black Friday shows value of going extra mile
So here I am, an avid shopper in the land of shopping, ready to tackle the biggest shopping weekend in the United States. Of course, I am talking about Black Friday, the day that follows Thanksgiving. I have always tried to hit the stores when I am in the U.S. This is partly because I am taller and my feet are larger than the “average” Korean female, making it a challenge to find anything that fits me in local department stores. But honestly, the shopping experience is beyond compare. In the U.S
Dec. 9, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Never too early to start work on a good idea
When people propose new ideas to improve our situation, we tend to discourage them by responding, “It’s too early for us to do it.” Instead of welcoming an idea by saying, “That’s a great idea. Let’s do it,” we dismiss it without giving it a second thought. In meetings, we are busy trying to unearth negative aspects of the agenda at stake, instead of looking at the positive side. That is why nothing ever happens in Korean meetings even after hours of heated discussions. Almost always, we end the
Dec. 9, 2014
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America is coming apart at the seams
It was the most Republican of times, it was the most Democratic of times.That’s the U.S. right now, a nation heading in two diametrically opposed directions. Where you live in the country has always influenced how you live. But divergent public policy choices, rooted in sharp partisan conflict, are heightening the geographic distinctions.House Republicans last week passed legislation designed primarily to channel conservative rage and secondarily to vaporize 11 million or so undocumented immigra
Dec. 9, 2014
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[Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen] Time to tackle corruption
Corruption remains a serious global challenge that impedes development and promotes inequality and injustice. Corruption undermines fundamental human rights, exacerbates poverty, and degrades the environment. It diverts money sorely needed by our societies for health care, education and other essential services. It increases the costs of doing business, distorts markets and impedes economic growth. Every year, developing countries lose up to $1 trillion through government corruption, criminal ac
Dec. 8, 2014
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Humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons
VIENNA ― In 1983, three years before I was born, a chilling television docudrama about the consequences of a nuclear war was broadcast around the world. The Day After, now cited as the highest-rated film in TV history, left then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan “greatly depressed” and caused him to rethink his nuclear strategy. At their summit in Reykjavik in October 1986, he and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev came tantalizingly close to eliminating all nuclear weapons.My generation has convenie
Dec. 8, 2014
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Einstein shunned phones in favor of quiet reflection
Today’s amazing communication technologies owe much to some of Albert Einstein’s greatest discoveries.For example, the cameras in cellphones and other electronic devices are based on the photoelectric effect, for which Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize. GPS systems take into account the stretching of time due to gravity, another of Einstein’s predictions in his magnificent general theory of relativity. Given that many scientists embrace technology, it is interesting to speculate what kind of
Dec. 8, 2014
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Breaking eggs in Hong Kong
At age 18, Joshua Wong is a remarkable figure in the history of Hong Kong. He is a protest leader with years of experience challenging Chinese government rule. Years of experience? Yes, he got his start as a political activist in middle school.Wong was arrested last week, then released, for his role as an organizer of Hong Kong’s street protests. The issue is Beijing’s control of local elections. Wong was beaten and groped by police while taken into custody as frustrated authorities cleared crow
Dec. 8, 2014
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[Andrew Sheng] Silver, Silk Roads and RMB internationalization
Students of RMB internationalization tend to forget that the globalization of Chinese currency happened much earlier with copper coins, which were first standardized and minted in the Qin Dynasty (260 to 210 B.C.). My old Chinese art historian teacher used to tell me that Chinese coins and ceramic shards were the first durable global debris, easily found around the rubble sites from Sri Lankan temples to Egyptian pyramids.Money followed trade Because China was short of silver and gold, common co
Dec. 8, 2014
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Reforming the intelligence machine
PARIS ― There’s no doubt that we are now well into a time when wars are won and lost on intelligence efforts. In an era of budgetary constraints, low appetite for overt foreign intervention, and highly asymmetric insurgency ― the likes of which we’re currently seeing in Syria and Iraq ― trading a clunky mass army for increased intelligence efforts and surgical strikes makes sense.The two battlefronts are enemy subversion and information collection. If the West is going to win, a few basic realit
Dec. 7, 2014
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[David Ignatius] A blow to bipartisanship
WASHINGTON ― The House Intelligence Committee, a rare island of bipartisanship in recent years, may soon become a more confrontational arena with the retirement of its chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers. Rogers is scheduled to be replaced by Rep. Devin Nunes, a conservative California Republican whose critical comments about Benghazi have made him a favorite with Fox News. House Speaker John Boehner announced the Nunes appointment two weeks ago in what appeared to be a concession to right-wing Republica
Dec. 7, 2014
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Netanyahu loses his grip
After his rough year with most of the western world, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now getting beaten up at home for being a crybaby. The accusation followed Netanyahu’s bizarre speech to the nation Tuesday night in Israel, explaining his decision to fire Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, thus severing his relationship with their parties and disbanding the coalition. As a result, the country is forced to hold new elections, which have now been set for
Dec. 7, 2014
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[Minxin Pei] Searching for substance behind China’s Asia slogan
CLAREMONT ― Distinguishing diplomatic rhetoric from official policy is never easy. But it is especially difficult in China, where the government’s actions so often fail to match its statements. Given this, it is worth asking whether the latest slogan adopted by Chinese officials ― “Asia for Asians” ― is merely nationalist posturing for domestic consumption or a signal of a genuine policy shift.The most authoritative reference to an “Asia for Asians” occurred in May, during Chinese President Xi J
Dec. 7, 2014
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‘Ox-Bow Incident,’ Ferguson and rule of law
Remember “The Ox-Bow Incident”?No?It’s positively ancient, and it’s easy to see why it’s been forgotten. For one thing, it’s in black-and-white. And it offers no eye candy: no explosions or moaning flesh, or fast cars or epic battles.But I’ve been thinking about it lately, especially now, with what’s going on in Missouri, in Ferguson and in St. Louis.“The Ox-Bow Incident” is a film of a novel that speaks to the rule of law. And it admonishes us against mob rule, the kind that turns men into a ly
Dec. 7, 2014
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[Robert Reich] Boundaries inside America
America is embroiled in an immigration debate that goes far beyond President Barack Obama’s executive order on undocumented immigrants.It goes to the heart of who “we” are. And it’s roiling communities across the nation.In early November, school officials in Orinda, California, hired a private detective to determine whether a 7-year-old Latina named Vivian ― whose single mother works as a live-in nanny for a family in Orinda ― “resides” in the district and should therefore be allowed to attend t
Dec. 5, 2014
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Putin can’t handle life without luck
“Luck,” wrote the U.S. gonzo-journalist Hunter S. Thompson, “is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Thursday gave the most pitiful state-of-the-nation speech of his extraordinarily lucky career, is falling off the wire.The speech was a stark contrast to Putin’s regal performance on March 18, when he called on the Russian parliament to approve the annexation of Crimea. That day, Putin basked in th
Dec. 5, 2014
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Xi’s Cultural Revolution doomed to fail
As Japan and South Korea have shown, the best way for governments to encourage pop culture with global appeal is probably to stay out of the way. China’s President Xi Jinping disagrees.Take Monday’s announcement by China’s top media watchdog. Effective immediately, the government has reserved the right to send film and television actors, directors, writers and producers on all-expenses-paid, involuntary, 30-day sabbaticals to rural mining sites, border areas, and other remote locations. The purp
Dec. 4, 2014
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[Kim Hoo-ran] ‘Hansik’ promotion begins here
A few weeks ago, I attended a dinner gathering where a discussion on the globalization of “hansik,” or Korean cuisine, concluded the evening. The guests included several Korean restaurateurs and foreign hoteliers, making for a lively conversation.The globalization of hansik is a topic that stirs up passionate debates, as the goal is as elusive as ever as that evening’s discussion showed. Promoting Korean food abroad was former first lady Kim Yoon-ok’s pet project and thus gained much traction du
Dec. 4, 2014
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[M. Veera Pandiyan] Malaysia’s anger-beset politics
What has the song “First Cut Is The Deepest” got to do with political sentiments in Malaysia?That was my precise thought when a rather inebriated guest singer proudly made references to his ethnicity and the recently concluded Umno (United Malays National Organization) general assembly before and after his rendition of the song at a popular local pub on Sunday.For those who are unfamiliar with the 47-year-old tune, it sums up the anxiety of entering a new romantic relationship while still suffer
Dec. 4, 2014