Most Popular
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Yoon, Lee end first talks with differences, agree to meet more
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What is Hybe’s next move?
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China outpaces Korea in smaller OLED shipments for 1st time
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[Grace Kao] Hybe vs. Ador: Inspiration, imitation and plagiarism
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[Herald Interview] Mom’s Touch seeks to replicate success in Japan
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Police to open alleged stalking probe over pastor over Dior bag scandal
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'Queen of Tears' finale sets record viewership ratings as tvN's most-watched series ending
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[News Focus] Lee tells Yoon that he has governed without political dialogue
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[Kim Seong-kon] Lose graciously: A sore loser is no fun to play with
It is well known that Koreans hate to lose. Indeed, we seldom accept a loss, whether in an election or in an athletic competition. When we lose an election, we either accuse the winner of being fraudulent or become spiteful. When we lose an athletic match, we almost always complain that the judge was not fair. We always blame someone or something for our loss or misfortune, instead of admitting our own flaws or incompetence. Recently, Seoul National University elected a new president. Since SNU
Aug. 26, 2014
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Western-imposed state system unravels
The horror stories emerging from northern Iraq, as well as the continuing slaughter in Syria’s civil war, point to a tectonic shift in the Middle East. Almost 100 years after World War I, the regional state system established after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire is unraveling.The contemporary map of the Middle East was drawn by the victorious Western imperial powers, Great Britain and France, during and after WWI. While the war was still raging, they signed an agreement drafted by the dip
Aug. 26, 2014
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Europe’s fitful financial integration
LONDON ― The well-publicized troubles of Portugal’s Banco Esprito Santo this summer have reminded us that the eurozone’s financial problems are by no means resolved. There are, no doubt, idiosyncratic factors behind the bank’s problems, stemming from its exposure to other parts of the Esprito Santo family’s empire. But when the bank announced a first-half loss of €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion), the sudden collapse of confidence was alarming, and nervous investors are asking whether there are simila
Aug. 26, 2014
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[Jeffrey Goldberg] West’s surrender to intolerance
On the one hand, it is completely unsurprising that Europe has become a swamp of anti-Jewish hostility. It is, after all, Europe. Anti-Jewish hostility has been its metier for centuries. (Yes, the locus of much anti-Jewish activity today is within Europe’s large Muslim-immigrant population; but the young men who threaten their Jewish neighbors draw on the language and traditions of European anti-Semitism as much as they do on Muslim modes of anti-Semitic thought.)On the other hand, the intensity
Aug. 25, 2014
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Hackers are after more than just personal info
A cyberattack on Community Health Systems Inc., a private hospital network, in April and June resulted in the theft of non-medical data of 4.5 million Americans, including names, addresses, birthdates, phone numbers and Social Security numbers, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The attacks were attributed to Chinese hackers. There’s justification for alarm, but not for the reasons you might think.The good news is that none of this information allegedly stolen by the C
Aug. 25, 2014
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Ferguson reveals blacks’ unfinished journey
The tragic shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked an intense debate about the state of race relations in America, but there’s little indication much will change.Predictably, Barack Obama, the first black president, is at the center of the debate. Should he speak out more forcefully? Should he go to Ferguson? Is this a teaching moment?This recalls the expectation that his election would magically transform an issue that has plagued the U.S. for h
Aug. 25, 2014
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[Clive Crook] Liberalism as a practice, not a fixed ideology
You might wonder if there’s any point in even trying to define liberalism. Efforts to do so seem bound to fail. From the start, its meaning has been elusive and in flux. Today, no right-thinking person is against “liberal democracy,” and we mostly take “liberal capitalism” for granted ― yet conservative Americans use “liberal” as a term of abuse and many left-leaning Americans would rather be called “progressives.”It’s tempting to say that “liberalism” no longer means anything. This would be wro
Aug. 25, 2014
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Israel, U.S. may want to rethink Iron Dome’s usefulness
Strategically speaking, the Iron Dome antimissile shield, precisely because of its effectiveness, has been disastrous for Israel: It has saved Hamas from destruction and it has helped to seriously undermine Israel’s image as a civilized state in the eyes of many in the West.During the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, Iron Dome has efficiently protected Israel from massive damage and casualties. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip had launched 2,64
Aug. 25, 2014
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[David Ignatius] The hooded face of evil
WASHINGTON ― The propagandists of the Islamic State must have imagined that their brutal video of the beheading of journalist James Foley would intimidate and terrorize the world. But people aren’t built that way, not in Muslim countries or anywhere else. When they see sadistic, uncivilized behavior, they are disgusted ― and angry. President Obama spoke with special precision and moral clarity in reacting to the video’s release Wednesday. The Islamic State, he said, “speaks for no religion. Thei
Aug. 24, 2014
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Food stamps’ $80 billion mystery
Imagine a government program that has exploded in size, is the subject of bitter partisan haggling and spends almost $80 billion a year in secret.No, not the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency or the Department of Homeland Security, which all spend less (as far as anyone call tell). The program in question is food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which now are used by one in six Americans.But after the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Aug. 24, 2014
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[Susan P. Mercado] If we stand together, no tobacco industry can survive
Tobacco is one of the deadliest public health menaces that the world has ever faced. If the nature and extent of the harms had been known from the start, tobacco would never have been approved as safe for human consumption. Each year, cigarettes kill 5.4 million smokers from direct use and another 600,000 nonsmokers through secondhand smoke. The problem is particularly acute in the Western Pacific Region, comprising one-quarter of the world’s population but more than two-fifths of the world’s sm
Aug. 24, 2014
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Tell the truth about Islamic State threat
President Barack Obama gave vent this week to an uncharacteristic show of emotion over the barbaric beheading of American journalist James Foley by the militant jihadi group the Islamic State. He denounced the group as a “cancer” in the region and accused it of rampaging “across cities and villages, killing unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence” as it seized a third of Syria and Iraq.Yet for months, as this cancer metastasized, the White House refused to recognize the growing Islamic St
Aug. 24, 2014
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[Hans-Werner Sinn] Italy’s downward spiral a competitiveness crisis
MUNICH ― Italy is now in a triple-dip recession. But it didn’t get there by itself. Yes, the economy’s long slide reflects Italian leaders’ failure to confront the country’s loss of competitiveness; but it is a failure that is widely shared in Europe.When the financial crisis erupted in the fourth quarter of 2007, Italy’s GDP plummeted by 7 percent, then picked up by 3 percent, dropped again by 5 percent, rebounded by a measly 0.1 percent, and lately, during the first half of this year, shrank a
Aug. 24, 2014
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Japan’s government plays roulette with casinos
MGM Resorts is looking over Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji fish market as a site for a giant casino. The jokes, of course, are on the obvious side.More than humor is at stake, though. Japan is betting on getting help from Las Vegas to boost tourism, jobs and tax revenue. Why, then, is it thinking of letting MGM and Las Vegas Sands chief Sheldon Adelson build them in places that are doing just fine without baccarat tables and roulette wheels? Japan should be steering these gargantuan, multibillion-dollar
Aug. 22, 2014
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[Robert Reich] The disease of U.S. democracy
Americans are sick of politics. Only 13 percent approve of the job Congress is doing, a near-record low. The president’s approval ratings are also in the basement.A large portion of the public doesn’t even bother voting. Only 57.5 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in the 2012 presidential election.Put simply, most Americans feel powerless and assume the political game is fixed. So why bother?A new study scheduled to be published in this fall by Princeton University’s Martin Gilens an
Aug. 22, 2014
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[Kim Kyung-ho] Lessons from DJ’s pragmatism
Senior members of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy held a breakfast meeting Monday to discuss measures to overhaul their embattled party in the wake of its crushing defeat in the July 30 parliamentary by-elections. But they hurriedly ended the meeting to attend an event, the date of which must have been circled in red on their calendars ― the fifth anniversary of the death of late President Kim Dae-jung.A crowd of politicians from across the political spectrum gathered at
Aug. 21, 2014
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Can China save Africa’s elephants?
There’s no consensus on just how many of Africa’s elephants are left. The World Wildlife Fund, for example, estimates that the population could be as few as 470,000 and as many as 690,000. Whatever the exact figure, it’s clear that China’s demand for ivory has created significant financial incentives for poachers to hunt the herds that remain scattered across the continent.On Monday, a group of researchers published what they billed “the most comprehensive assessment of illegal ivory harvest to
Aug. 21, 2014
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Indonesia’s Jokowi and a dream team cabinet
The debate over whether an elected president should appoint politicians as Cabinet members as part of a power-sharing mechanism or appoint professionals instead to restore the presidential system of government has never subsided.Indonesian presidents elected after 1998 tended to play it safe by accommodating political parties in their Cabinets because none of them were supported by a party that held an outright majority at the House of Representatives. The same goes for president-elect Joko “Jok
Aug. 21, 2014
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[Juan L. Mercado] Journalism offers antidote to national amnesia
“National amnesia causes us to forget who and what we are.” Is that the fix we’re in when the Philippines marks the 31st anniversary (Aug. 21) of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.’s airport tarmac murder?The most concise summary of that assassination is perhaps found in the tape recorder of then Time magazine’s Sandra Burton. She propped it against a window of China Airlines Flight 811 jet, when it parked at what is today’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.Three soldiers escort Aquino out. The tape catc
Aug. 21, 2014
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Dry reality of droughts in China
From times immemorial, China has faced droughts, with some parts of the country facing the curse every two to three years. The damage droughts have inflicted on China’s socioeconomic fabric was relative to their intensity and duration. For instance, the drought in 1994-95 was so intense that it caused a loss of $13.8 billion.South and Southeast China suffered severe droughts in 2010-11. Now Henan province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Northeast China are in the grip of a severe dr
Aug. 21, 2014