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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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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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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Hankook Tire takes over control of Hanon Systems
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New Indian P.M. Modi’s mandate for growth
WASHINGTON, DC ― In an impressive exercise in democracy, 800 million eligible voters participated in India’s 16th general election. The new prime minister will be Narendra Modi of the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party, who presided over rapid economic growth in his 13 years as chief minister of the state of Gujarat, on India’s northwest coast. Modi won because most Indians believe that he can deliver more rapid growth in the country as a whole.The election once again demonstrated how different
May 18, 2014
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[David Ignatius] A nightmare group in Syria
WASHINGTON ― The chamber of horrors of the Syrian civil war has spawned a terrorist group so extreme that it has been rejected even by al-Qaida ― and this toxic group is now establishing a safe haven in the city of Raqqah in northern Syria that could soon be used to attack foreign targets. The hyper-militant terrorist group is known in the West as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Its efforts to establish a Muslim caliphate that spans the two countries, and to absorb another al-Qaida
May 16, 2014
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U.S. immigration reform in need of reforming
PARIS ― As a chronic immigrant, I’m loath to support immigration policies that might make life difficult for anyone seeking to legitimately integrate into and contribute to an adoptive nation. Nonetheless, as the Obama administration attempts to reform U.S. immigration policies, there needs to be some standard of selection for immigrants. That standard should be nothing more or less than meritocracy.The common argument against meritocracy is the well-worn image of the hard-working illegal immigr
May 16, 2014
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[Cass R. Sunstein] Why worry about inequality?
What, exactly, is wrong with economic inequality?Thomas Piketty’s improbable best-seller, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” has put that question in sharp relief. As just about everyone now knows, Piketty contends that over the next century, inequality is likely to grow. In response, he outlines a series of policies designed to reduce wealth at the very top of society, including a progressive income tax and a global wealth tax.But Piketty says surprisingly little about why economic inequali
May 15, 2014
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Boko Haram chose its victims for a reason
Millions of people around the world have tweeted in recent weeks using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. That’s an important sentiment, and not just as it relates to the kidnapping of 276 female students by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.The region in which the abductions took place is reaching an ecological and social tipping point, and in the years to come, much will depend on its girls.In a video released on May 4, Boko Haram’s despicable leader, Abubakar Shekau, says: “Girls must give their ha
May 15, 2014
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[Amando Doronilla] ASEAN waffles on oil rig row
Vietnam and the Philippines called on the other member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at their summit in Burma (Myanmar) on Sunday to take stronger action to confront China over its provocative actions in the South China Sea. But their call fell on deaf ears.Vietnam led the denunciation, accusing China of “brazenly” triggering the confrontation between Vietnamese and Chinese flotillas last week over the installation by Beijing of a giant oil rig at the Paracel Islands in
May 15, 2014
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Setting up unelected Thai government not possible
The idea of using the Constitution’s Article 7 to set up an unelected government to help pull the country out of the current political crisis is impossible both legally and practically.The anti-government protesters and some senators have been working hard to twist the Constitution so they can topple the government. In fact, some senators are even trying to get their newly appointed Speaker to call on His Majesty to appoint a new premier. They believe they can apply Article 7 to give their actio
May 15, 2014
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Is $2 per day right measure for defining poverty?
Governments world over take measures to lessen poverty and develop such policies which ensure sustainable supply of necessary food and other livelihood goods to the vulnerable.However, the main problem in the eradication of poverty is the definition of poverty. Many governments measure poverty by just setting a poverty line in terms of number of dollars earned by a person. For example, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar recently declared a person will be poor who earns less than $2 per day. He said the
May 15, 2014
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Limits of dynastic politics seen in Indian elections
India’s just-concluded parliamentary elections have shown up the limits of dynastic politics to the country’s ruling Congress party, dominated by the Gandhi family that has produced three prime ministers.The party’s likely response to the crisis: More of the same.“We do not place much trust in the exit polls since they have been pretty wrong in the past,” said a serving Cabinet minister and senior Congress party source.“But if there is going to be a debacle, it will be the responsibility of the
May 15, 2014
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[Ban Ki-moon] Reviving hope for South Sudan
By the end of this year, half of South Sudan’s 12 million people will either be in flight, facing starvation or dead. That was the shocking but all too real prognosis presented to me on arrival Tuesday in Juba, the nation’s capital.Over the last five months, this newest of nations, and one of the world’s poorest, has been plunged into a maelstrom of violence that has displaced more than 1.2 million people and raised the specter of ethnic cleansing. With more than 4 million already desperately hu
May 14, 2014
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Quit playing games with Benghazi
The deaths of four Americans ― including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens ― in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012 was a tragic (though sadly not unprecedented) loss of life as well as an indictment of security measures at the U.S. mission there. But Benghazi isn’t a mystery that needs to be plumbed by yet another congressional investigation.Benghazi has already been investigated by the independent Accountability Review Board and several congressional committees, including four House panels and
May 14, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Safety slighted in survival-oriented environment
A few weeks ago, placards with colored block letters appeared at the front and rear gates of my apartment complex: “Congratulations (for) Passing the Precision Safety Checkup for Reconstruction!” Similar signs on large white sheets were also posted on the walls and fences of nearby apartments. It is not clear who posted them but security guards say that the apartment management office did the advertising. Of course, I know what the placards mean and why the landlords felt justified spending mone
May 14, 2014
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U.S. Republicans do the climate change dance
Last week, the White House issued a new and alarming edition of its national report on climate change. How did leading Republicans respond?Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, the GOP’s leader in the Senate, scoffed at President Obama for “talking about the weather,” dismissing the issue as a hobbyhorse of “liberal elites ... who leave a giant carbon footprint and then lecture everybody else about low-flow toilets.”After pointing out that the president is “not a meteorologist,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-
May 14, 2014
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China’s dangerous college graduate glut
Even during China’s most feudal phases, higher education has offered a reliable means of meritocratic advancement. Well into the 1990s, the limited number of university graduates meant that all of them were virtually assured places among the economic elite.As China tries to evolve from “the workshop of the world” into a more technologically advanced service economy, however, a swelling glut of graduates is threatening this age-old compact. This year alone, Chinese universities are expected to pr
May 14, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] Virtual battlefields on the rise
How would you define “air force pilot?” One might respond that an air force pilot is a soldier in the cockpit of a jet fighter flying through enemy airspace, under attack from surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft guns. The advent of the drone age is now changing the definition and has also brought forth new questions. Air force operators of drones (officially dubbed “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles”) are now being categorized by some countries, including the United States since 2009, as military pi
May 13, 2014
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The economist who can rescue India
Few central bankers have had as much success in so short a period as India’s Raghuram Rajan.Eight months ago, when Rajan took over as head of the Reserve Bank of India, the rupee was in a free fall, speculators were betting on a debt crisis, and economists buzzed about India being the first BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nation to have its credit rating cut to junk. Today, India’s central bank is back to battling more conventional foes such as inflation, not financial Armageddon, thanks
May 13, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Call for a long memory span and professionalism
When the issues of responsibility and failure become the primary concern of our society, the memory of the tragic Sewol disaster will surely haunt us. Even though our beloved young children who died in that ill-fated ferry forgive us and take us in, we cannot ever forget our unbearable guilt. Indeed, the enormous gulf of guilt cannot be bridged, no matter how hard we try to atone. Even though we are grief-stricken, we will soon forget the disaster as usual because we have an incredibly short mem
May 13, 2014
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Can Asians think?: Still a relevant question
“Can Asians Think?” is a provocative book written in 1998 by the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, Kishore Mahbubani, a prolific and brilliant thinker. The book is a combative rebuttal of the idea that the dominant Western (read American) ideas are universalist, arguing that the Rest (of the World) has a lot to teach the West.Rereading it after more than 16 years, the questions raised by Mahbubani are as relevant as ever. Personally, I foun
May 13, 2014
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Battle for free speech neither lost nor won
Twenty-five years ago, in 1989, four big things happened that still shape our world. The Berlin Wall came down, and with it the empire that Vladimir Putin would love to restore. The Tiananmen Square massacre launched China on a new trajectory, which has made it what it is today. A then little-known British scientist named Tim Berners-Lee invented what would become the World Wide Web. And Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini delivered his fatwa on Salman Rushdie.On May 4, I sat down with Rushdie in New Yo
May 13, 2014
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How to make death penalty less unfair
Capital punishment is unjust, immoral and prone to error, as most of the world’s developed nations have figured out. But the United States, unwilling to put aside a desire for revenge, continues to kill its own citizens; 32 states and the federal government still impose the death penalty. At the very least, they ought to perform that barbaric task as fairly and humanely as possible.A report released Wednesday by the Constitution Project, a bipartisan think tank that includes both death penalty a
May 12, 2014