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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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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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[Robert B. Reich] Charity begins at home
It’s charity time, and not just because the holiday season reminds us to be charitable. As the tax year draws to a close, the charitable tax deduction beckons.America’s wealthy are its largest beneficiaries. According to the Congressional Budget Office, $33 billion of last year’s $39 billion in total charitable deductions went to the richest 20 percent of Americans, of whom the richest 1 percent reaped the lion’s share.The generosity of the super-rich is sometimes proffered as evidence they’re c
Dec. 22, 2013
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Help Ukrainians stand up for Western values
Before Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal to bail out our country’s economy this week, there was excitement among Western officials and analysts about the way some businessmen who have bankrolled the president’s rise to power appeared to be distancing themselves from him.Many Ukrainians weren’t fooled. The country’s so-called oligarchs still supported Yanukovych. And now they will be prime beneficiaries of the $15 billion of bail-out loans and lower natural gas prices that he se
Dec. 22, 2013
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The charitable Scrooge
From the earliest days of our nation, Americans have been a generous people. In 2012 alone, according to Giving USA estimates, Americans donated $316 billion to charity.At no time is this generosity more evident than during the holiday season, when nearly 60 percent of all Americans make charitable contributions, ranging from loose change dropped into Salvation Army buckets to multi-million-dollar donations.Whether it’s a child who receives a $10 Christmas toy from Toys for Tots or a college stu
Dec. 22, 2013
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[Cass R. Sunstein] The behavioral economist at the movies
The Oscars won’t be awarded until March, but those who hand out the annual Behavioral Economics Oscars (known as the Becons) are famously impatient, and it is time to announce this year’s winners.― Best Actress: In recent years, behavioral economists have become interested in emotions and affect. It is now widely known that human beings use an “affect heuristic” in thinking about activities and risks. Instead of carefully assessing the statistics about (say) nuclear power or genetic modification
Dec. 22, 2013
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[Editorial] Keep the guard up
In what has been dubbed the beginning of the end to quantitative easing, the U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it would reduce its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion to $75 billion starting in January.The impact of the Fed’s move on the Korean market was mild, with no volatility observed in the stock and foreign exchange markets Thursday. This was probably because the move had been expected for so long that much of its potential impact had already been reflected in the markets.Another
Dec. 20, 2013
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[William Pesek] TPP needs more WikiLeaking
Self-awareness often eludes U.S. officials who push American interests on Asia. John Kerry’s visit to Vietnam was a case in point as the secretary of state implored the government to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership.In his pitch earlier this week, Kerry said the U.S.-led trade deal would bring “transparency” and “accountability” to the communist nation, helping it become a more open society that supports free expression. An odd thought, considering the Big Brother-like secrecy enshrouding th
Dec. 20, 2013
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The utter insanity of French Socialist thinking
A new report commissioned by the French Socialist government to make recommendations on how France can better integrate its residents of foreign origin has been described by former French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet as “organizing apartheid by inciting each community to affirm its difference,” according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.I figured that had to be gross exaggeration ― until I read through the hundreds of pages myself. As a native Canadian, I couldn’t help but notice that the Fr
Dec. 20, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Iran committed to nuclear deal
TEHRAN ― Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that despite hitting a “snag” in nuclear negotiations last week, Iran is committed “100 percent” to reaching a comprehensive final agreement. But he voiced tough positions on key issues and said “it’s going to be a bumpy road,” with difficult bargaining ahead.Zarif, who is Iran’s top chief negotiator, outlined his views in an hourlong interview at the foreign ministry here Sunday. He said that his country would continue the talks, despi
Dec. 19, 2013
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Tech giants’ belated campaign against NSA
When Edward Snowden’s revelations of National Security Agency spying shocked the world, we were immediately struck by the huge risk to Silicon Valley industry if people no longer trusted the security of American technology.Six months later, the extent of the problem is being quantified: The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation estimates the hit to U.S. cloud computing providers at $35 billion over the next three years. Forrester analyst James Staten calculates tech losses at $180 billi
Dec. 19, 2013
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[M. Veera Pandiyan] Politics in Thailand is in a state of dysfunction
A likely coup against Thaksin Shinawatra was the main topic of discussion during a dinner with friends in a quaint Iranian restaurant in Silom, Bangkok, on the night of Sept. 19, 2006.Bizarrely, it happened while we were there.On the way back from an assignment in India, I had stopped over to catch up with friends whom I had met when I was there as editor of the Asia News Network between 2002 and 2004.The host, who had overindulged in wine, decided it would be safer to drop me off at the nearest
Dec. 19, 2013
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A new milestone is set for global trade
Dec. 7, 2013 is a date destined to go down in history, as the Bali Package marked a concrete step forward in the Doha Round of World Trade Organization trade talks. The last-minute deal came after tense overnight talks that extended the end of the WTO’s ninth Ministerial Conference from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning. After more than a decade of negotiations and missed deadlines, the WTO has finally achieved a breakthrough in its marathon trade-liberalization negotiations. Now there seems
Dec. 19, 2013
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The person of the year for many years to come
Time’s article on Pope Francis explaining why he is the magazine’s Person of the Year made this observation at one point: “John Paul II and Benedict XVI were professors of theology. Francis is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher.”That is probably why Francis has been able to do what he has done in so short a time. He has done it not because he was once a professor of theology but because he was once a janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and
Dec. 19, 2013
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[Scott Snyder] Kim’s reign of fear: What’s next?
When a political crisis hits Pyongyang, the leadership’s normal antidote is to hide the real drama in rumors and shadows while assuring the world that outside forces are no match for North Korea’s spirit of “single-hearted unity.” But North Korea’s real-time media coverage of the vituperative public denunciation and execution of Jang Song-thaek, the uncle by marriage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has exposed deep divisions within the Kim family leadership and has shocked North Koreans and
Dec. 18, 2013
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How Pope Francis misunderstands free market
In its cover story on the “Person of the Year,” Time magazine contrasts Pope Francis’s background with that of his two most recent predecessors: “John Paul II and Benedict XVI were professors of theology. Francis is a former janitor, nightclub bouncer, chemical technician and literature teacher.”The point can be extended further. Every pope from 1914 to 1978 had Vatican diplomatic or bureaucratic experience, and so our understanding of the papacy has been shaped by diplomats, bureaucrats and sch
Dec. 18, 2013
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[Park Sang-seek] Live up to, not just uphold, Mandela’s spirit
Nelson Mandela, the symbol of peace and harmony, has left the world and the whole world has vowed to live up to his spirit and ideals. But many countries continue to suffer from conflict and discord. His message to the world can be summarized in three words: freedom, equality and solidarity. These three ideals are the same as those of the French Revolution and the first three universal values stated in the U.N. Millennium Declaration. Mandela’s view is that the U.N. should be the foundation of w
Dec. 18, 2013
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Obama’s trade deal with Asia: Not so fast
The free-trade agreement being negotiated by the U.S. and 11 other nations is considered the economic keystone of the Barack Obama administration’s much-vaunted “pivot” to Asia. If successful, the Trans-Pacific Partnership will liberalize a $2 trillion market, reinforce U.S. standing as the lead promoter of “21st century” trade practices, and revolutionize economic relations between the U.S. and its most important ally in the region, Japan.Given the complexities of negotiations involving economi
Dec. 18, 2013
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Obamacare: A bad deal for young age groups
By now, young adults have heard that they are key to making Obamacare work, and the Obama administration has spent ample resources trying to convince them that the law is a good deal for them.But they don’t seem to be buying in. A new Harvard poll shows that 57 percent of young adults polled disapprove of the health care law. And with good reason: The law will impact young adults’ wallets far more negatively than those of older adults in two big ways.1. Higher premiums. First, it’s the Obamacare
Dec. 18, 2013
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[David Ignatius] U.S. causes anxiety among allies
DUBAI ― Is President Obama an American version of Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader whose well-intentioned reforms led to the demise of his country’s global power? That’s the anxiety a traveler hears these days from worried U.S. allies, and it’s mirrored in a provocative article published recently. This concern about erosion of American power is powerfully stated in “The End of History Ends” by Walter Russell Mead in The American Interest. Mead warns that Obama’s attempts to disengage from the over-
Dec. 17, 2013
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‘Kill switch’ could curb smartphone thefts
Every time you pull out your smartphone in public, you’re making yourself a target.The mobile gadgets are easy to spot, easy to steal and fetch hundreds of dollars quickly on the black market.Protect Your Bubble, a company that sells insurance for personal electronics, says 113 smartphones are stolen every minute in the U.S. In New York, those thefts account for 14 percent of all crime.Cops have a name for it ― Apple picking ― but the iPhone maker is actually out front in the effort to curb gadg
Dec. 17, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] Gambling and sports idioms in American English
Recently, several Korean newspaper columnists have complained that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks on the Korea-U.S. relationship were inappropriate. They were especially unpleasant because they thought Biden had compared the Korea-U.S. relationship to gambling. When he was in Korea recently, Biden reportedly said, “The United States never says anything it does not do. It’s never been a good bet to bet against America ... and America will continue to place its bet on South Korea.” One mi
Dec. 17, 2013