Most Popular
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Yoon apologizes for first lady Dior bag scandal, calls push for special probe ‘political’
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Korea forecast to overtake Taiwan in chip production by 2032: report
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Girl hanging on bridge, police trying to rescue her both fall off; rescued immediately
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[K-pop’s dilemma] Can K-pop break free from ‘fandom’ model?
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YouTuber fatally stabbed on livestream by another YouTuber in Busan
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No plan to let doctors with foreign licenses practice here anytime soon: PM
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Yoon rebuffs opposition's call for special probe into wife
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Stray Kids hit with racism in Met Gala photo line
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[News Analysis] Yoon's first 2 years marked by intense confrontations, lack of leadership
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Yoon apologizes for wife's 'unwise conduct'
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[David Ignatius] Balancing Tehran’s factions
WASHINGTON ― An intriguing new figure is gaining prominence in the Iranian government just as regional conflicts in Iraq and Syria intensify and nuclear talks with the West move toward a Nov. 24 deadline. The newly prominent official is Ali Shamkhani, the head of Iran’s national security council. He played a key role last summer in the ouster of Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister. In interviews over the last few weeks, Iraqi, Iranian, Lebanese, European and U.S. officials have all describe
Nov. 3, 2014
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The problem of China’s missing babies
In one of the signature reform measures of his early presidency, Xi Jinping declared last November that China’s notorious “one-child” policy would become a “two-child” policy for couples where either husband or wife was an only child. While the change didn’t abolish the often brutally enforced population control measure, it was a start. Chinese officials hoped the announcement would usher in a mini-baby boom, predicting as many as 2 million additional births per year to parents who had long been
Nov. 3, 2014
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[John Kass] Democratic candidates have an Ebola problem
The Sexy Ebola Nurse costume with thigh-high stockings revealing ample flesh above the knee ― yellow boots optional ― is here just in time for the November midterm elections, and for just $60.And it may be worn as a Halloween costume too.This Sexy Ebola Nurse costume might just be the hottest political get-up since Nixon masks were used by bank robbers.But what can’t be known about the Sexy Ebola Nurse costume is whether it is:A) Just another tasteless piece of garbage hawked to desperate trends
Nov. 3, 2014
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What’s really going on in North Korea
It was a news story that read like the plot of a Peter Sellers or Mike Myers picture: Vertically challenged dictator of a starving populace, overweight and addicted to imported Swiss cheese, falls off his high heels and breaks both ankles. He is sent off to rehab and, in his absence, rivals jostle for preeminence as the world anxiously looks on and speculates.Rather than the plot of an upcoming movie, this was one story about North Korea when “The Marshal,” Kim Jong-un (military experience: none
Nov. 3, 2014
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Brazilian leader’s economic head-fake
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff won’t begin her second term until Jan. 1, but if the first week after her re-election is any indication, the coming four years will be stinkers. After a bitter campaign, the Workers Party leader made all the right noises, leavening her victory speech with grace notes about “dialogue,” embracing reforms and tackling corruption. The Sao Paulo stock index promptly plunged, rallied, then tumbled again as investors parsed the policy chatter and weighed the chances t
Nov. 3, 2014
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[William Pesek] Giving Japan a second wind
Anytime I moderate a discussion on Japan, I ask panelists this: If Shinzo Abe were sitting before you now, what steps would you recommend the prime minister take to hasten Japan’s resurgence?Almost without fail, each mentions his or her favorite elements of the “third-arrow” reforms Abe’s already pledged. This phase of his plan, which focuses on deregulation and some degree of structural reform, is the most vital. With the first two ― monetary expansion and fiscal stimulus ― having been fired, t
Nov. 2, 2014
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Thailand must take heed of U.N. message
Thailand’s failure to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council last week came down to several factors, but the most important was suppression of democracy and human rights in the Kingdom.Thailand launched its campaign for a place on the rights body last year when the country was run by an elected government. There had already been occasional reports of Thai authorities violating rights, but nothing on a “grand” scale. Our lobbyists at the U.N. could point to Thailand’s democratic go
Nov. 2, 2014
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[Noah Smith] Bad data can make us smarter
At the Western Finance Association meeting this summer, I heard a presentation of an interesting paper titled “... and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns,” by Campbell Harvey, Yan Liu and Heqing Zhu. The paper is sort of a finance version of the famous 2005 paper by John Ioannidis, “Why Most Published Research Findings are False.”The subject of both papers, in short, is data-mining. The number of published papers has exploded over the past century, but the statistical techniques used to judge
Nov. 2, 2014
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American well-being since 1979
BERKELEY ― The story goes like this: Since 1979 ― the peak of the last business cycle before the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as President ― economic growth in the United States has been overwhelmingly a rich-only phenomenon. Real (inflation-adjusted) wages, incomes, and living standards for America’s poor and middle-class households are at best only trivially higher. While annual real GDP per capita has grown 72 percent, from $29,000 to $50,000 (in 2009 prices), almost all of this growth has g
Nov. 2, 2014
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States should pay more attention to death options
These days in America you can do all sorts of things legally, if you don’t mind leaving home.For example, if you want to cavort with prostitutes, we have a state for that.If you want to smoke marijuana, we have two states for that, Colorado and Washington, and may soon have more.And if you are gay and happen to live in a state that still has laws against same-sex marriage, you can travel with your beloved to one of 32 states that now permit same-sex ceremonies.But if you are afflicted with a ter
Nov. 2, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Wishful thinking in Iraq
WASHINGTON ― A glimpse of the anxiety sweeping the Arab world surfaced last week when an Arab woman complained during a talk in Amman at the Columbia Global Center for the Middle East. She said my speech’s title about the “crisis” in the region wasn’t accurate. The correct word was “disintegration.” The audience cheered loudly.The Arab world is suffering a sense of vertigo these days. Extremists from the Islamic State, who have seemingly arisen out of nowhere, have burst through the gates of pow
Oct. 31, 2014
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Canadian attack prompts absurd reactions
PARIS ― Some warped minds believe that when a nation suffers a terrorist attack, it somehow deserved it and should set about doing some soul-searching. Implicit in this argument is the notion that the attacker was somehow justified in his heinous actions ― there was no other option but to lash out violently.Except that there is. Even the Islamic State could choose to exercise unofficial diplomacy through a sympathetic Persian Gulf country. But it doesn’t, because the Islamic State isn’t interest
Oct. 31, 2014
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[Chon Shi-yong] Ban and presidential politics
In general, Koreans follow politics closely. You can easily overhear people discussing politics on mountain trails, at family gatherings for Chuseok and in bars and restaurants.I am still awed whenever I encounter cab drivers who are as well acquainted with political issues as commentators and political reporters are. Sometimes I have to pretend to be asleep if I come across a driver who is a very passionate follower of politics and a vigorous speaker. One of the most popular topics among Korean
Oct. 30, 2014
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The failure of democracy in decolonized states
After de-colonization, most newly-independent Asian and African countries were unable to stabilise democratic institutions and traditions. The system in these countries further weakened and became vulnerable when armed forces intervened and overthrew democratic government to establish military dictatorships.Another factor that has remained significant in the failure of democracy in such countries is the role of politicians. With their mediocrity, corruption and lack of vision, they plunged the c
Oct. 30, 2014
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[John McBeth] Jokowi’s cabinet: Hard to form, facing hard work
After being promised a free hand to choose his cabinet, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo discovered ― perhaps not to his complete surprise ― that it was anything but free in a behind-the-scenes tussle with both Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and Vice-President Jusuf Kalla. In fact, since his festive Oct. 20 inauguration, he has been taking more fire from inside the camp than from the outside, where opposition leader Prabowo Subianto’s Red and White Coalit
Oct. 30, 2014
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New Fukushima governor must accelerate recovery from crisis, evacuees’ return
The governor-elect of Fukushima prefecture must display strong leadership to accelerate efforts for reconstruction from the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and expedite the return of evacuees to their homes. Former Deputy Gov. Masao Uchibori easily triumphed in the prefecture’s gubernatorial contest on Sunday, which was contested by a field of six first-time candidates. Uchibori won in his first campaign for the top post in the prefecture.The Liberal Democratic
Oct. 30, 2014
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[Dominique Moisi] The return of Sarkozy
PARIS ― Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said that a week is a very long time in politics. If that is true, France’s 2017 presidential election is an eternity away, and any speculation at this point is premature, even imprudent. Nonetheless, some interesting preliminary developments merit consideration ― specifically those concerning perceptions of President Franois Hollande and his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, neither of whom would be likely to win an election today.The French
Oct. 29, 2014
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Vaccine ignorance ― deadly and contagious
In the absence of credible, strong political leadership, paranoia about disease can go viral. We’ve seen this happen around the world with a wide range of illnesses, from swine flu to SARS to Ebola.And even after threats are addressed, a new form of conspiratorial thinking often emerges, this time focused not on the microbes but on the tools used to keep the germs at bay ― especially vaccines.Since 2008, the Council on Foreign Relations has been collecting data and publishing weekly updates on a
Oct. 29, 2014
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[Jim Yong Kim] Shared prosperity: A goal to reduce inequality
We have made tremendous progress over the last quarter century in the fight against poverty. In 1990, 36 percent of the world’s population, or 1.9 billion people, earned less than $1.25 a day. By next year, we estimate that that rate will have declined to 12 percent ― a two-thirds reduction in 25 years. This means that, by next year, 1 billion fewer people will be living in extreme poverty than in 1990. That’s major progress. However, helping the next billion escape poverty will be far more diff
Oct. 29, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Aegi-bong clearing and delay of OPCON transfer
It was Christmas Eve of 1968, a chilly night. A busload of reporters and cameramen from Seoul newspapers and TV stations headed toward Aegi-bong Peak on the Gimpo Peninsula. There, the ROK Marine Corps had just erected a “Christmas tree,” a steel frame with many electric bulbs and other paraphernalia to make it look like the holiday symbol. When we arrived at the windy hill overlooking the shiny water of the Imjingang River dividing North and South Korea at the western end of the Demilitarized Z
Oct. 29, 2014