Most Popular
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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Naver will consider company benefits in deciding on selling Line shares: CEO
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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Will Putin pay $90 billion for Crimea?
Ukraine has hit on a good way to keep Russia’s annexation of Crimea on the world agenda: Sue for compensation.Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to play a mind trick on Western leaders: Get them so worked up about the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine that they forget about Crimea. On Monday, acting Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko offered a reminder in the form of a 17-volume calculation that values the territory, including such items as the 300 kilograms of gold kept at the Cr
June 5, 2014
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Young voters hold the key in Malaysia
The defeat of a candidate from the Malaysian opposition in the Teluk Intan by-election over the weekend came as a shock to the Pakatan Rakyat alliance, not least because the low turnout suggested many young people did not bother returning home to vote.Their absence was a key factor contributing to the opposition Democratic Action Party’s defeat in the Perak parliamentary seat which it had won by 7,300 votes in the 2013 general election.Last Saturday, only 66.7 percent of the 60,300 voters cast t
June 5, 2014
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[Karim Raslan] Lessons from India’s new leader
India is on the cusp of immense change. The election of Narendra Modi ― an unthinkable outcome as recently as a year ago ― will alter Asian, if not global, politics.The 63-year-old is now at the helm of a 1.2 billion-strong nation. How he manages them will have an enormous impact.The National Democratic Alliance led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 336 seats in India’s 543-seat lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha.The BJP itself gained an outright majority with 282 seats ― the first time
June 5, 2014
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ASEAN must launch China Sea peace bid
Thailand is too busy with domestic affairs to play mediator between ASEAN and Beijing in the South China Sea, where territorial disputes have escalated recently with clashes between China and Vietnam. But Myanmar, currently chairing ASEAN, has no excuse to sit still.Beijing and Hanoi repeatedly insist they want to solve their dispute by peaceful means, but neither has backed down from provocative moves at sea and so far they’ve shown no readiness to talk.The international community has voiced gr
June 5, 2014
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What is required to win war against militancy?
Grace, tolerance, mercy: these words seem to have disappeared from the lexicon of Pakistani polity. Instead, vengeance, violence, slander and murder seem to have gained currency in a state-sponsored narrative of denial and fear.While institutions have sanctity, those at the helm must be accountable and willing to face healthy criticism. This is the essence of democracy, unless we as a nation are just content with paying lip service to the constitutionally guaranteed right “to enjoy the protectio
June 5, 2014
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Creating a learning society
NEW YORK ― Citizens in the world’s richest countries have come to think of their economies as being based on innovation. But innovation has been part of the developed world’s economy for more than two centuries. Indeed, for thousands of years, until the Industrial Revolution, incomes stagnated. Then per capita income soared, increasing year after year, interrupted only by the occasional effects of cyclical fluctuations.The Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow noted some 60 years ago that rising
June 4, 2014
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Five more ways to fight global warming
First, the good news. President Barack Obama’s proposed rules on coal-fired power plants aren’t a last-ditch, desperate measure. They’re designed to keep a good trend going ― the U.S. is already decreasing its carbon emissions, thanks to cheap natural gas and to the fact that Americans are driving less.The drop in emissions has stalled in the last couple of years, due to the economic recovery and a recent spike in the price of natural gas. So the idea of Obama’s new rules is to resume the shift
June 4, 2014
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An Obama disconnect on foreign policy
Having just returned from Ukraine, I found it hard to recognize the world U.S. President Barack Obama described in his West Point foreign policy speech last week. The facts on the ground ― in Russia, Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan ― contradict the key points he was making. That disconnect makes friends and enemies worldwide question his ability to lead.Obama rightly says the odds of a direct attack from any foreign nation are minimal. But in a rapidly changing world, with China rising, Russia in
June 4, 2014
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[Park Sang-seek] Implications of Obama’s foreign policy doctrine
At the commencement ceremony at West Point on May 28, President Barack Obama reasserted and further elaborated his foreign policy principles (commonly called the “Obama doctrine”). His speech was important because he used it to attempt a counterattack against his critics, from the left to the right, and at home and abroad. In the process he contrasted traditional American foreign policy doctrines such as idealism, isolationism and unilateralism with his foreign policy principles.He admits that t
June 4, 2014
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Now who wants to change constitution?
We are in the midst of a shift in political thinking about constitutional amendments. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, is among many progressive thinkers now promoting constitutional change ― in her case, to allow Congress to restrict corporate spending on political campaigns. Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in a new book, calls for no fewer than six constitutional amendments, involving not only campaign finance but also gun control, capital punishment, political gerryman
June 4, 2014
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Let President Obama be dealmaker in chief
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman is reaching the end of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement almost five years in the making. The accord would wrap the U.S., Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries into a humongous free-trade zone with almost 800 million consumers and 40 percent of global output. It could increase U.S. exports by $78 billion a year and create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade.A deal would provide a welcome boost to a d
June 3, 2014
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[Robert J. Fouser] Expanding local democracy
Today Korea holds elections for all levels of local government. The elections for mayor and governor, particularly in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, have attracted the most attention. The elections also include nonpartisan races for head of city and provincial boards of education. During the campaign, both major parties have tried to tie the elections to national issues, but local issues and feelings about candidates also move voters.Elected local government is relatively new in Korea. Local elect
June 3, 2014
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Sex, drugs and accounting in Europe
Europe has a new source of economic growth. In the next few months all European Union countries that do not already include drugs, prostitution, and other illegal and gray-market businesses in their gross domestic product calculations will have to do so.The 2010 version of the European System of Accounts becomes obligatory for GDP reporting by EU member states in September. It states unequivocally that “illegal economic actions shall be considered as transactions when all units involved enter th
June 3, 2014
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The war between ‘authors’ and writers
The event was no place for people like me. At least that’s what I’d read on the Internet.It was the inaugural program of an upstart association called the Authors Alliance, held in the former San Francisco church that now houses the Internet Archive. Founded by four University of California Berkeley professors, the alliance seeks to represent “authors who write to be read.”The implicit contrast is with authors who write to be paid.At least that’s how the rival Authors Guild, which dates back to
June 3, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Rereading ‘The Reader’
When I first came across the film adaptation of Gunter Grass’s “The Tin Drum,” in 1978, I was shocked by the graphic scenes that powerfully but metaphorically indicted Nazi Germany. Several scenes were so shockingly blasphemous and pornographic that the powerful movie has haunted me relentlessly ever since. I immediately bought and read the novel and found it equally provocative. When I first read Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader” in 1997, I was deeply moved by the tragic sense of history embedded
June 3, 2014
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[Michael R. Bloomberg] Obama keeps his promise
Less than a week before the 2012 election, I endorsed President Barack Obama for one main reason: his commitment to confronting climate change with bold new initiatives. New York City had just come through Hurricane Sandy, and it was painfully clear that rising sea levels and intensifying storms could no longer be ignored in Washington.We needed the federal government to take action, but almost nothing had been done since cap-and-trade legislation failed to pass the Democratic-led Senate in 2010
June 2, 2014
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NSA leaker still doesn’t look like a hero
Accused National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was handed a golden opportunity to justify himself Wednesday when he was asked by NBC’s Brian Williams whether the American public should view his unauthorized release of thousands of classified U.S. government documents to the media as a principled act of civil disobedience or as a betrayal of his country ― and he blew it.The interview, taped last week, took place at a hotel in Moscow, where Snowden fled last year in order to avoid prosecut
June 2, 2014
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No, China isn’t really rebalancing economy
“Tolerance” and “slowdown” clearly mean something different in Beijing’s dictionary.Since November, when the Communist Party announced epochal reforms, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have rarely missed a chance to say China must accept slower growth. Downshifting to a “new normal” is a necessary evil to regear the economy’s growth engines to services. Six months on, all they’ve done is add more and more stimulus to ensure no end to massive investment and exports.The first sign of sl
June 2, 2014
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[Naomi Wolf] Feminine leadership mystique
NEW YORK ― In a single week earlier last month, Jill Abramson, the first woman to serve as executive editor of the New York Times, resigned under duress, and Natalie Nougayrede resigned as editor-in-chief of France’s leading newspaper, Le Monde, complaining in an open letter of having been undermined. What, if anything, do these high-profile dismissals tell us about women in senior workplace positions?The Times announced Abramson’s departure in a front-page story filled with barbs and swipes, th
June 2, 2014
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Obama’s new strategy: Outsource war on terror
President Barack Obama on Wednesday charted a vision for protecting America that relies less on military power and more on training foreign security forces to fight on their own soil. His context: Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have taught American leaders about the power ― and limits ― of U.S. military options.The U.S. still has a vital interest in dismantling terror networks and havens, the president said. Terrorism remains “the most direct threat to America at home and abroad.” But “a strategy
June 2, 2014