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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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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[Grace Kao] Hybe vs. Ador: Inspiration, imitation and plagiarism
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Bangladesh needs real parliamentary elections
In Bangladesh’s parliamentary elections Sunday, everyone lost. The vote was marred by bloodshed, boycotted by the opposition and notable mostly for a dearth of actual voters. The results reveal only that the country’s bitterly divided political parties need to try again.Running largely unopposed, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s Awami League had won a majority of seats even before polls opened. Yet no government that forms out of these elections ― which Hasina’s own son admitted were “half-b
Jan. 8, 2014
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Avada Kedavra! China and Japan get all Harry Potter
London isn’t usually the place to look for clues about rising tensions between China and Japan. But a surreal diplomatic tit-for-tat there speaks volumes about the fast-deteriorating situation in Northeast Asia.The dustup between the Chinese and Japanese ambassadors to Britain started with a Jan. 1 op-ed in the Daily Telegraph by China’s Liu Xiaoming. The envoy blasted Shinzo Abe’s Dec. 26 visit to Yasukuni Shrine, accusing the Japanese prime minister of putting the world on a “perilous path.” T
Jan. 8, 2014
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India seethes over diplomat’s arrest in the U.S.
NEW DELHI ― Nearly a month after American authorities arrested India’s deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, outside her children’s school and charged her with paying her Indian domestic worker a salary below the minimum wage, bilateral relations remain tense. India’s government has reacted with fury to the mistreatment of an official enjoying diplomatic immunity, and public indignation has been widespread and nearly unanimous. So, has an era of steadily improving ties between t
Jan. 8, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] ‘The world’s most beautiful mosquito curtain’
One of the good things about the newly opened Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Sogyeok-dong, Seoul, is its “plain” entrances. I would call them plain because the front and side doors are not much different from those you pass through when you visit any downtown residential administration center or bureaucratic office. There is not even a revolving door. At its rear entrance, there is no gate or wall or anything that serves to delimit the MMCA compound from a small back alley of Bukchon.
Jan. 8, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] Time for rice tariffication
The 10th anniversary has come ― again. Among the many issues on the national agenda in the new year is how to address the perennial problem of rice market opening. This issue was on the radar throughout last year, but apparently put under the rug with a policy of hush because of the political explosiveness. Now the moment of truth is coming up soon.Last time this issue erupted was in fall 2004, when Korea’s 10-year obligation to suspend opening the rice market (called tariffication) was coming t
Jan. 7, 2014
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Putin’s embarrassing Olympic moment
In 2007, when the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2014 Winter Games to the Russian city of Sochi, it raised hopes that the Kremlin was open to liberalization and reform. President Vladimir Putin did his best to charm the committee, and it seemed to work. “The Games will help Russia’s transition to a young democracy,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko, who led the successful bid.Lately, there have been surprising developments in Russia. Putin indulged the Christmas spirit by granting clemency
Jan. 7, 2014
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France’s moral responsibilities to Africa
For food, fashion and fast trains, few labels are more sought after, and rightly so, than “Made in France.” But when it comes to the making and unmaking of empires, not so much. Take the case of the Central African Republic.Three weeks ago, as bloody mayhem engulfed the CAR, Francois Hollande did what French presidents do best: He sent in the paratroops. With the blessing, and precious little else, of his European neighbors, Hollande declared his intention to protect 100 or so French nationals i
Jan. 7, 2014
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Creating a safe space for queer youngsters
[Letter to the editor] South Korea has one of the highest rates of suicide among developed (OECD) countries, reaching 28.4 per 100,000 people in 2011; the rate of teenager suicides was 9.4, also among the highest. Hidden among these tragedies are Korean LGBQT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender), whose sexuality is often condemned by our traditional society. Although the media has publicized the suicides of the actor and model Kim Ji-hoo (2008) and a gay army serviceman (2013), the vast
Jan. 7, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] An affair to remember on a ‘Roman holiday’
A few weeks ago, I went to Rome and immediately fell in love with her. Just like her nickname, “Everlasting City,” Rome was so stunningly beautiful, full of marvels and wonders that I fell in love with her at first sight. Wherever I went, I encountered rich historic heritage and vestiges of the once glorious Roman Empire. Indeed, Rome literally looked like an array of beautiful postcards. I went to Rome not for pleasure, but for business. I participated in the 2013 European Translators’ Workshop
Jan. 7, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Ben Bernanke, crisis manager
WASHINGTON ― When Ben Bernanke was asked last month what historians would write about his eight-year tenure as Fed chairman, which ends Jan. 31, he gave a characteristically reticent answer: “I’ll be interested to see. I hope I live long enough to read the textbooks.” The surprising truth is that Bernanke, the modest, balding economics professor from Princeton, may go down as the most radical innovator in the Fed’s history ― and also, one of the most successful. To combat the financial meltdown
Jan. 6, 2014
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U.S., Russia should cooperate in war on terror
Well, that was fast. In an early-September column about the Syrian conflict and the new world order, I wrote that Russia and the West could team up against the forces of radical Islam. It looks set to happen sooner than expected, given the current wave of Islamic terrorist attacks not far from the site of the upcoming Sochi Olympic Games.The pre-Olympic suicide bombings give Russian President Vladimir Putin a wide-open shot at leading the world in the war against radical Islamic terrorism, and t
Jan. 6, 2014
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What if 21st century really begins in 2014?
As if you didn’t already have enough to be nervous about, here’s something creepy to ponder as the new year opens.This what-if isn’t technological, social, political or even science-fictional. Rather, it’s a bit of wholly unscientific, superstitious pattern-recognition. The last two centuries (and possibly more) didn’t “start” at their official point, the turning of a calendar from 00 to 01. That wasn’t when they began in essence, nor when they first bent the arc of history.No. Each century effe
Jan. 6, 2014
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[J. Bradford DeLong] American inequality on the rise
BERKELEY, California ― Unless something goes unexpectedly wrong in 2014, the level of real per capita GDP in the United States will match and exceed its 2007 level. That is not good news.To see why, consider that, during the two business cycles that preceded the 2007 downturn, the U.S. economy’s real per capita GDP grew at a 2 percent average annual pace; indeed, for a century or so, the U.S. economy’s real per capita GDP grew at that rate. So U.S. output is now seven years ― 14 percent ― below
Jan. 6, 2014
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Wealthy need to use resources to create jobs
Is it a sin to be rich?Not if your resources are used to help others and create jobs.If you listen to most of the discussions of income inequality, it certainly seems like affluence itself is a crime. We hear increasing calls for higher taxes on the wealthy and other policies designed to redistribute income. President Obama summed up that position when he said, “Our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.”The assumption behind these proposals i
Jan. 6, 2014
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Nuclear megabargain between the U.S. and Russia
Iran is churning out nuclear fuel and may be on the brink of nuclear weapons capability. North Korea has already busted into the nuclear club, testing two bombs. The U.S. and its allies fear terrorists may someday acquire a nuclear weapon.Today, however, we spotlight a rare international nuclear nonproliferation success that has made the world safer: A two-decade-long deal to recycle Russian nuclear warheads and turn the uranium into fuel to power American nuclear reactors. The agreement ― calle
Jan. 5, 2014
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[Christine Lagarde] Re-empowering global economy
WASHINGTON ― The global economy in 2013 remained suspended between the poles of hope and uncertainty. While recovery gained momentum, particularly in some advanced economies, the world economy is not yet flying on all engines ― and is likely to remain underpowered next year as well.The International Monetary Fund’s latest forecast puts global GDP growth at 3.6 percent in 2014, which is decent, but still below potential growth of around 4 percent. In other words, the world could still generate co
Jan. 5, 2014
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The world economy’s shifting challenges
NEW YORK ― As 2013 comes to a close, efforts to revive growth in the world’s most influential economies ― with the exception of the eurozone ― are having a beneficial effect worldwide. All of the looming problems for the global economy are political in character.After 25 years of stagnation, Japan is attempting to reinvigorate its economy by engaging in quantitative easing on an unprecedented scale. It is a risky experiment: faster growth could drive up interest rates, making debt-servicing cost
Jan. 5, 2014
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[Robert B. Reich] Obamacare deserves patience
Whatever happened to American can-do optimism? Even before the Affordable Care Act covers its first beneficiary, the nattering nabobs of negativism are out in full force.“Tens of millions more Americans will lose their coverage and find that new Obamacare plans have higher premiums, larger deductibles and fewer doctors,” predicts Republican operative Karl Rove. “Enrollment numbers will be smaller than projected and budget outlays will be higher.”Rove is joined by a chorus of conservative Cassand
Jan. 5, 2014
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[Dominique Moisi] Unrealpolitik in Russia, China
PARIS ― In her recent book on the origins of World War I, “The War That Ended Peace,” Margaret MacMillan concludes that the only thing one can say with certainty about its causes is that leadership matters. No one really wanted war, but no one knew how to oppose it, because great statesmen like Germany’s Otto von Bismarck, whose self-restraint preserved peace in Europe for decades, were missing in Europe in 1914. A similar leadership void has become palpable in recent behavior by Russia and Chin
Jan. 3, 2014
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Booming Japan isn’t a good buy in 2014
Two numbers colored Shinzo Abe’s 2013 and offer hints about Japan’s prospects this year: 57 and 49.The first is how much in percentage terms the Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged in 2013. The prime minister even dropped by the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday to celebrate, declaring: “Next year will go well. With this thought, I want to do my best. Next year too, Abenomics is a buy.”The second number ― 49 ― explains why he’s probably wrong. It corresponds to Abe’s public approval rating as of Dec. 2
Jan. 3, 2014