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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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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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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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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Evidence of wrongful convictions grows
“He lies like an eyewitness.” It’s an old Russian saying, of uncertain provenance but enduring popularity among the defense bar. Unfortunately, there is truth to the proverb ― and the result is that too many innocent people go to jail for crimes they didn’t commit, and too many of the guilty go free.A new report issued jointly by the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Association of Chiefs of Police shows how common wrongful convictions are and suggests ways to help prevent them. D
Dec. 6, 2013
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[Robert B. Reich] Hidden price of holiday deals
The most important website last weekend and in weeks to come ― on which the hopes and fears of countless Americans are focused (and the president’s poll ratings depend) ― is not HealthCare.gov. It’s Amazon.com.Even if and when HealthCare.gov works perfectly, relatively few Americans will be affected by it. Only 5 percent of us are in the private health insurance market to begin with. But almost half of Americans are now shopping for great holiday deals online, and many will be profoundly affecte
Dec. 5, 2013
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Ukrainians unlikely to stage successful revolution
PARIS ― Tens of thousands of protesters are flooding the streets of Ukraine, blocking access to government offices and threatening to start what the media is largely (and preemptively, if not mistakenly) referring to as a “revolution.” All this over the pro-Russian Ukraine leadership’s decision to renounce a free-trade agreement with Europe that would have represented a shift away from the Russian sphere of influence.Except that this is no revolution, at least not yet, and people around the worl
Dec. 5, 2013
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[Bunn Nagara] ASEAN way of consensual decision-making
Too often are standard arguments repeated at international conferences, particularly those of a regional strategic nature, regardless of whether those arguments are true or correct.There is, for example, the one about ASEAN’s supposedly flaccid process of consensual decision-making. But even if a demonstrably better alternative exists, which critics typically fail to identify, what assurance is there that it will work better for Southeast Asia?The efficacy of decision-making systems varies from
Dec. 5, 2013
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What Thailand needs for durable political reform
“Please help me,” implored the woman, sitting at the roadside. I was near the popular Bobae wholesale clothes market. Government House, a main target of the anti-government protesters trying to unseat the Yingluck Shinawatra administration, was only a few blocks away. The intermittent pops of rubber bullets being fired were growing in intensity and frequency, while a haze billowed down the street, bringing with it the faint odour of gunpowder and an acrid smoke that immediately burned the eyes a
Dec. 5, 2013
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Li leads Shanghai spirit
The 12th prime ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states yielded fruitful achievements on boosting economic cooperation and people-to-people communication within the SCO framework. Held in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on Thursday and Friday, the meeting demonstrated the aspirations, confidence and determination of the member states to build regional peace, security and prosperity by upholding the Shanghai Spirit and providing guidance for the organization
Dec. 5, 2013
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[William Pesek] Japan’s chilling secrets bill
Shinzo Abe owes Xi Jinping a debt of gratitude.The buzz in Japanese cyberspace is that Chinese President Xi is wagging the dog by declaring a controversial “air-defense identification zone” across the East China Sea. The move has drastically ramped up tensions with Japan and the U.S., both of which have blatantly disregarded Beijing’s unilateral edict. According to one prevailing theory, Xi is whipping up an international storm to change the subject domestically away from income inequality, offi
Dec. 4, 2013
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How European Union can help save Ukraine
Twice in his career, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has faced crowds in the hundreds of thousands calling for him to step aside. The first time was in 2004, when he attempted to steal the presidential elections. The second was this weekend, after he decided not to sign a trade agreement with the European Union.As a cause of popular unrest, “not signing a trade agreement” does not quite rank with “stealing an election.” That Ukrainians protested both is an indication not only of their desp
Dec. 4, 2013
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[Nisid Hajari] Can Ieodo unite Korea, Japan?
All the drama surrounding China’s declaration of a vast “air-defense identification zone” off its shores centers on the disputed islands known as the Senkaku by Japan, which administers them, and the Diaoyu by China, which challenges Tokyo’s claim. The new zone encompasses the airspace over the islands: Beijing wants any planes in the area to identify themselves beforehand or face unspecified, possibly military, action. Japan scoffs at this demand, as does the U.S., which has accused China of un
Dec. 4, 2013
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Dance of the GOP governors in Washington
Don’t look now, but auditions for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination are already under way in Washington. And the flavor of the moment is ― governors.First came Chris Christie, the pugnacious governor of New Jersey, who won reelection by a landslide last month and almost immediately headed to the nation’s capital for a burst of speeches and television appearances.Days later, a less pyrotechnic (but equally combative) chief executive arrived to do the Washington media rounds: Scott Walke
Dec. 4, 2013
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Amazon’s drone PR campaign fills the sky
With characteristic concern for coolness over commercial viability, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos unveiled a new kind of delivery vehicle Sunday night. It’s called an octocopter, and it will fly all by itself, attuned to GPS coordinates, dropping off goods at customers’ doorsteps for same-day delivery.Or at least that’s what Bezos, a consummate PR man, told a wide-eyed Charlie Rose on “60 Minutes.” The octocopter unveiling was masterful publicity, properly hyped and well tim
Dec. 4, 2013
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China summit forecasts shift in world power
Technology and revolutionary changes in energy, banking and manufacturing will force a sunset on Western dominance.Several speakers at the Second World Emerging Industries Summit in this central China city on the Yangtze River shared that forecast recently with business, government and university officials from nearly two dozen countries. “Technology creates new possibilities,” said Dominique de Villepin, former prime minister of France.Global dominance will shift to such countries as China, Ind
Dec. 4, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Syrian war against al-Qaida
WASHINGTON ― As al-Qaida grows more powerful in Syria ― seeking “complete control over the liberated areas,” according to a new Syrian rebel intelligence report ― moderate opposition leaders are voicing new interest in a political settlement of the grinding civil war. But a peace agreement may just be a prelude to a new war against the terrorists. This search for a political transition has also drawn together a disparate group of nations, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United State
Dec. 3, 2013
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A value-added tax plan all sides can embrace
Here’s some holiday cheer: 120 million American families no longer have to file income tax returns; the top individual rate is lowered by 20 percent; the top corporate rate is cut by more than half; the government gets the same amount of revenue; and the tax system is slightly more progressive.OK, it’s not a free lunch. It would be accompanied by a 12.9 percent value-added levy, which critics like to call a national sales tax.This is the brainchild of Michael Graetz, a Columbia University law pr
Dec. 3, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] Discrimination against women at Korean funerals
A few weeks ago, my father-in-law passed away at the age of 85. Before the start of the Korean War, he had escaped from North Korea to the South during his early twenties. Ever since, he had not been able to see his remaining family in the North. For the past 63 years, he yearned to visit his hometown of Haeju in Hwanghae Province, but his dream never came true. He was a man who tragically lost his home due to the division of the country after the Korean War. I felt so sorry for him. As a pallbe
Dec. 3, 2013
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Why it’s OK to pay bone-marrow donors
Two years ago, Doreen Flynn of Lewiston, Maine, won her case against the U.S. government, successfully arguing that bone-marrow donors should be able to receive compensation.Flynn, a mother of three girls who are afflicted with a rare, hereditary blood disease called Fanconi’s anemia, has a strong interest in bone-marrow transplantation. At the time of the court ruling, her oldest daughter, Jordan, 14, had already received a transplant, and one of the younger twins, Jorja, was expected to need o
Dec. 3, 2013
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War on contraception? No, an attack on religion
From reading the New York Times, you might think that religious conservatives had started a culture war over whether company health-insurance plans should cover contraception. What’s at issue in two cases the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear, the Times editorializes, is “the assertion by private businesses and their owners of an unprecedented right to impose the owners’ religious views on workers who do not share them.”That way of looking at the issue will be persuasive if your memory does
Dec. 3, 2013
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In poor countries, cancer still carries stigma
In poor and middle-income countries, a lethal malady once prominent mainly in affluent parts of the globe is raising its ugly head. Cancer incidence rates are increasing at double that of the rest of the world.Especially alarming are the fatality data. As Jason Gale reports in the December issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, while developing countries account for about half of new cancer cases, they have about 70 percent of cancer deaths.Lack of access to the latest diagnostic technology and ch
Dec. 3, 2013
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[Wolfgang Ischinger] Germany’s same foreign policy
MUNICH ― More than 10 weeks after its general election, Germany continues to be without a new government. But, though the post-election coalition negotiations have been unusually prolonged, there is little disagreement between the parties over foreign and security policy.Indeed, when Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party finally presented their coalition agreement on Nov. 27, the working group on foreign and security policy had been finished with i
Dec. 2, 2013
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The spyware that enables mobile phone snooping
Thanks to ever-improving technology for intercepting phone calls and text messages, it’s getting easier for U.S. companies’ competitors, both foreign and domestic, to engage in corporate espionage through remote wiretapping. Such activity, which has been widespread in India for years, could be thwarted if U.S. wireless carriers would upgrade their network infrastructure and encryption practices.However, the federal authorities who are in a position to require this seem more interested in keeping
Dec. 2, 2013