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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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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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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The German miracle, riding on bad roads
Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election in Germany with an impressive share of the vote, but talks to form a coalition remain jammed over whether to establish a minimum wage. This focus is myopic.The next government ― probably a grand coalition between Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party ― will need to concentrate on fundamental issues affecting the next generation that have been neglected under Merkel as she concentrated on balancing the budget.Germany may be th
Oct. 29, 2013
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[Dominique Moisi] Turkey’s lost European illusions
PARIS ― “Day by day, Europe is moving further away from Turkey,” Egemen Bagı, Turkey’s Minister for European Union Affairs, declared last week. But the reverse is equally true: With a mixture of disillusion and defiance, Turkey has been distancing itself from Europe in recent years. “If you do not want us,” the Turks appear to be saying, “we really do not want you.”In reality, nearly three years after the beginning of the “Arab Spring,” Turkey is more in search of itself than it is of Europe, ev
Oct. 28, 2013
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Don’t let the NSA kill the Internet
Thirty, 20 or even 10 years from now, will historians write that the unbridled zeal of the National Security Agency fatally undermined U.S. leadership in the Information Age and the creation of a truly global Internet?The latest sign this could happen comes from the European Parliament, where legislators have advanced privacy legislation that would forbid the transfer of data generated in the European Union to an outside country unless the subject in question and the EU source country first give
Oct. 28, 2013
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[John E. Schwarz] Recalibrating the out-of-whack poverty line
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark paper that helped delineate the federal poverty line. A huge leap forward in its day, the poverty line established credible criteria for what constituted an acceptable standard of living. It continues to be the official measure used, for example, to determine who will get what subsidies under assistance programs such as food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid.However, like anything half a century old, it could use a little updating. By it
Oct. 28, 2013
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Obamacare’s fantasy couldn’t handle reality
The HealthCare.gov website is a disaster ― symbolic to Obamacare opponents, disheartening to supporters, and incredibly frustrating to people who just need to buy insurance. Some computer experts are saying the only way to save the system is to scrap the current bloated code and start over.Looking back, it seems crazy that neither the Barack Obama administration nor the public was prepared for the startup difficulties. There’s no shortage of database experts willing to opine on the complexities
Oct. 28, 2013
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The lust beneath Japan’s sex drought
An occupational hazard for foreign journalists is traipsing into “exotic Japan” and getting lost in a forest of stereotypes, fuzzy data and tarted-up headlines.Such is the case with the media’s renewed obsession with reports that the Japanese have given up on sex. This canard emerges every couple of years, but it’s snowballing anew thanks to an Oct. 19 Guardian headline screaming: “Why Have Young People in Japan Stopped Having Sex?” The references to dominatrixes-turned-sex counselors, men who g
Oct. 28, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Going nowhere with Libya
WASHINGTON ― For a case study of why America’s influence has receded in the Middle East, consider the example of Libya. Some simple steps over the past two years might have limited the country’s descent toward anarchy. But Libya became so toxic after the Benghazi attack that the U.S. has been slow to provide help. When Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan visited Washington last March, he made a straightforward request: He needed U.S. help in training a “general purpose force” that could protect off
Oct. 27, 2013
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Karzai’s demands offer no future for Afghanistan
The Afghan people’s most dangerous foe is not the Taliban. It’s not Pakistan or al-Qaida. No, it’s their president, Hamid Karzai.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Kabul earlier this month and spent more than 24 hours with Karzai, trying to work out an agreement that would allow a modest contingent of U.S. troops to remain in the country after 2014, to continue protecting Afghans from their enemies.The two men said they came to agreement on several important issues. But the pact remains
Oct. 27, 2013
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[Shashank Joshi] Obama can safely ignore Saudi tantrums
Saudi Arabia has been throwing a diplomatic temper tantrum lately, threatening a “major shift” away from the U.S. over differences on Iran, Syria and other issues. The Obama administration can relax.Trouble has been brewing in this relationship for years. Saudi Arabia was aghast at President Barack Obama’s support for the 2011 Egyptian revolution, which overthrew another old U.S. ally, former President Hosni Mubarak. It was aggrieved, too, at the lack of U.S. support for that year’s Saudi-led in
Oct. 27, 2013
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‘Rush’ driver Lauda challenges our idea of heroism
PARIS ― Our standards for heroism really have tanked, and a new Hollywood movie has driven that point home ― at 180 mph.Ron Howard’s breathtaking new movie, “Rush,” is the story of the famous 1976 season of Formula One legends Niki Lauda and James Hunt, during which world champion Lauda had a near-fatal crash at Germany’s Nrburgring track. The film underscores just how easily impressed we’ve become as a society since the Lauda-Hunt era. I walked out of the theater wanting to punt a Bieber.Just 4
Oct. 27, 2013
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How Turkey betrayed Israel and the U.S.
A new report has sent a jolt through the world of spies and spy-handlers, with revelations of a major betrayal by a key ally of the United States and the West. That ally is Turkey, a member of NATO, a candidate for membership in the European Union and nation with close ties to the United States and, until a few years ago, a good friend of Israel.The well-connected Washington Post writer David Ignatius reported the shocking news that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave Iran the names
Oct. 27, 2013
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[Robert B. Reich] The triumph of the right
Conservative Republicans have lost their fight over the shutdown and debt ceiling, and they probably won’t get major spending cuts in upcoming negotiations over the budget.But they’re winning the big one: How the nation understands our biggest domestic problem.Conservative Republicans say the biggest problem is the size of government and the budget deficit.In fact, our biggest problem is the decline of the middle class and the increasing ranks of the poor, while almost all the economic gains go
Oct. 25, 2013
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Federal minimum wage back to 1950 level
The minimum wage has put a floor under workers’ wages since taking effect 75 years ago on Oct. 24, 1938. But at $7.25 an hour, today’s federal minimum wage is the same as it was in 1950, after adjusting for inflation.Too little, too late minimum wage raises are the next best things to eliminating it for minimum wage opponents.“If we would have had our druthers,” said Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, “We would have eliminated it.” But, as the
Oct. 25, 2013
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[David Ignatius] On top of the secret empire
WASHINGTON ― James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, is not your sleek, button-down spy chief. The 72-year-old retired Air Force general has a beatnik goatee, a tendency to speak in malapropisms and a cranky attitude that he sometimes sums up with the phrase “I’m too old for this [expletive]!” The structure of Clapper’s position overseeing the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies has itself been a kind of bureaucratic nightmare. The post was created in 2004 to reduce the turf wars wit
Oct. 24, 2013
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Call of duty: Red Cross edition of games
You might think the International Committee of the Red Cross would have plenty to do just providing humanitarian aid to people in war zones. And so it does. So why is the organization poking its nose into the debate over violent video games?As it turns out, that’s also a pretty good use of its time.Among the millions of young people who play such games today ― virtually capturing, torturing and killing enemy combatants ― are some of the soldiers, military officers, government leaders and opinion
Oct. 24, 2013
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[Devadas Krishnadas] Asia’s prospects: How bright is ‘bright’ future?
Asia’s future fortunes are not in question. But just how bright a future and how volatile its path will be is uncertain.An understanding of four key issues and how they relate to Asia’s development can help businesses and investors be better prepared.The four issues are: how demographics drive destiny; the need for both China and India to institute systemic reforms; tectonic geopolitics; and the disruption of supply chains.The Asian growth story is about a young demography. Both China and India
Oct. 24, 2013
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Sino-India ties can help achieve ‘Asian Century’
“We’re living in interesting times,” thus goes the Chinese saying. The same can be said about India-China relationship. They have decades-old border dispute, which keeps surfacing as an irritant in a relationship that has seen Indian and Chinese armies taking part in joint exercises and thriving trade ties.Given this backdrop, the China visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assumes great significance as the boundary issue would top the agenda of his talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Oct. 24, 2013
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Shanghai FTZ has inbuilt advantages
After the U.S. lifted its embargo following former president Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972, China began learning from Western examples. The establishment of a series of special economic zones was part of the lesson China learned, which has now prompted it to set up the Shanghai free trade zone. The FTZ demonstrates China’s determination to build Shanghai into a global economic hub. The FTZ is aimed at helping develop industries by promoting free and convenient trade, and acting as a t
Oct. 24, 2013
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Time for Malaysian leader to push ahead
The results of the United Malays National Organization elections will reinforce Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s position for now. Having his allies in key roles within Malaysia’s largest political party is the best outcome for a nation seeking calm stewardship in the aftermath of the May general election, in which the Barisan Nasional won a majority but trailed in the popular vote. Najib retained the UMNO presidency without contest. But more indicative of the direction UMNO, the titular l
Oct. 24, 2013
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[Park Sang-seek] Doctrines of Obama and Putin
When President Obama decided last month to attack the chemical weapons facilities in Syria to save the lives of innocent citizens, President Vladimir Putin vehemently criticized Obama’s rationale for the attack and presented a compromise solution: dismantlement of all the chemical weapons systems by an international body. Obama accepted the proposal and postponed his attack plan. The world felt that Russia defeated the U.S. in a global leadership contest without fighting, damaged American global
Oct. 23, 2013