Most Popular
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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Rewards not punishments for Bangladesh workers
The U.S. is about to reimpose tariffs on Bangladesh in response to the country’s failure to improve safety in its factories. The European Union has threatened to follow the U.S.’s lead ― a move that would hit Bangladesh much harder. This punitive strategy is understandable, but there’s a better way to advance a worthy cause. More than 1,000 people died when a garment factory near Dhaka collapsed in April; a few months before, a factory fire killed more than 100. Safety standards in Bangladeshi f
July 10, 2013
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[Yoon Young-kwan] China’s North Korean pivot
BEIJING ― After a spring of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula, a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent weeks has brought some hope of a meeting of the minds, at least between China, South Korea, and the United States. But the emergence of a viable consensus on how to minimize the security risks emanating from North Korea’s mercurial leadership remains to be found.After a reportedly tough meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice Marshall Choe Ryong-hae, one of the four mem
July 10, 2013
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Why I became a Chinese shadow banker
In the fall of 2010, as deputy head of China investment banking at UBS AG, I spoke to a group of wealthy investors in Beijing about the outlook for Chinese stocks. A rumpled, 50-something man from Hangzhou named Wang Zhigang pulled me aside afterward and asked for my advice about investing. Until then, he had made his money through curbside lending, not stocks. But, he lamented, his returns had dropped from more than 30 percent a year to a mere 23 percent. He worried about his personal fortune,
July 10, 2013
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Young white women kill themselves by tanning
Despite the hoopla over dysfunction in Washington, the government can still do useful things. To prove it, the Food and Drug Administration should move aggressively to implement and then strengthen its proposed cancer warnings about tanning beds. A stunning 20 million to 30 million Americans each year use tanning beds. Use is particularly concentrated among young white women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 30 percent of white women between the ages of 18 and
July 10, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] What Park should do to save Sejong City
One morning last week, I took a bus trip to Sejong City to see for myself what was going on in the new administrative town out of curiosity as a concerned taxpayer and semi-active journalist. Peeping into the office buildings of the Sixth Bloc, the earliest completed part in the administrative complex that now houses four ministries and the Prime Minister’s Office, I had one lingering question: Would there be any room in the heads of those officials inside to think of good public service other t
July 10, 2013
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Koreans find it hard to break up with chaebol
Everyone loves a good perp walk. For South Koreans, Lee Jay-hyun’s made great theater. The sight of Lee ― chairman of the conglomerate CJ Group and grandson of Samsung’s legendary founder ― being led away by police last week on embezzlement and tax-evasion charges has been portrayed as an early victory for President Park Geun-hye’s five-month-old government. The arrest supposedly shows that Park is serious about reining in the chaebol ― family-owned behemoths that continue to dominate Asia’s fou
July 9, 2013
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[Lee Jae-min] Greenpeace’s unrealistic plea
The summer has just begun, but many people are dreading the thought of surviving the heat of July and August. In the face of the worst-ever electricity shortages, the government is imposing a nationwide electricity usage reduction regulation. Air-conditioners are turned off while coolbiz clothing is being praised everywhere. The painful summer of 2013 is the outcome of the unexpected suspension of operation of several nuclear power generators in Korea because of various untoward reasons. In a co
July 9, 2013
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U.S. frackers can save millions of Chinese lives
For years Chinese have been told that the blinding, sooty haze choking Beijing and other cities is the price of progress. All rapidly industrializing economies have endured appalling levels of pollution, officials say. They insist that the only alternative is to slam the brakes on China’s economy and consign tens of millions to poverty. Yet China’s appetite for energy is literally killing its people. A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences illustrates how d
July 9, 2013
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Pope John Paul II and the trouble with miracles
“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.” ― David HumeLast week the Vatican announced that a meeting of cardinals and bishops had ruled that the late Pope John Paul II was responsible for a second miracle, and thus the way was cleared for sainthood.The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decided he had cured a woman from Costa Rica in 2011 after a panel o
July 9, 2013
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Obama’s trip to Africa marks a step forward
President Obama’s recent trip to Africa is a marker of the continent’s progress on freedom, democracy and the market economy.The continent is by no means universally democratic, but South Africa and Senegal, two of the three countries Obama visited, are two of the continent’s freest, and the third country, Tanzania, is freer than it once was. Most of Africa is at peace, though there remains a problem with terrorism.The economy of sub-Saharan Africa has been growing at a rate of more than 5 perce
July 9, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] Building bridges in Tokyo
This year, Japan invited South Korea as the country of honor at the 2013 Tokyo International Book Fair. I flew to Tokyo together with First Vice-Minister of Culture Cho Hyun-jae and a group of major Korean publishers. At the opening ceremony, the prince and princess from the Japanese Royal Palace paid a surprise visit to the Korea Exhibit Center, and their fine gesture of friendship and goodwill touched the Korean participants. The prince and princess were especially intrigued by memos written i
July 9, 2013
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Immigration, opportunity and American ideal
What is the point of immigration reform? It is not about securing the political future of one political party or the other. Nor is the point to supply business with an abundance of cheap labor. And contrary to much of what we’ve heard in recent weeks, the primary goal is not to create a border so secure it would make Kim Jong-un proud. Immigration reform is primarily about respect ― for the dignity of human beings and for the rule of law. Reform should legalize work, reduce incentives for illega
July 8, 2013
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[Peter Singer] The spying game made public
MELBOURNE ― Thanks to Edward Snowden, I now know that the U.S. National Security Agency is spying on me. It uses Google, Facebook, Verizon, and other Internet and communications companies to collect vast amounts of digital information, no doubt including data about my emails, cellphone calls, and credit card usage.I am not a United States citizen, so it’s all perfectly legal. And, even if I were a U.S. citizen, it is possible that a lot of information about me would have been swept up anyway, th
July 8, 2013
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U.S. tilts progressive on immigration, gay marriage
Looking at the news from Washington a little more than a week ago, Americanophiles in Turkey were confused: Was the U.S. moving more toward openness and tolerance or back to more fundamentalism? Were Americans following Kemal Ataturk or Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan? The Supreme Court ruled, barely, for gay marriage with limits. The Senate cleared immigration reform amid warnings the measure would die in the House. Across the country, states were close to banning abortions. The picture isn
July 8, 2013
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Can activist leaders take lead after coup?
The Arab Spring has come full circle.Two years ago, huge crowds in Tahrir Square called for the removal of a military-backed dictator and for democratic elections. Today, opposition crowds in the same square are cheering the military’s ouster of an elected government. So much for the popular appeal of electoral democracy!Opposition groups lay the blame for Egypt’s ongoing economic and state collapse at the feet of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. The military has now p
July 8, 2013
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[Alvaro de Vasconcelos] Algeria’s 1992 fate should be avoided in Egypt
PORTO ― The military coup that has overthrown Egypt’s first democratically elected president and led to the arrests of Muslim Brotherhood leaders across the country poses an enormous danger not only for Egypt’s democratic transition, but for the democratic hopes of the entire Arab world as well.The fact that the coup was undertaken with massive popular support is a sign of the enormous difficulties faced by the Muslim Brotherhood during its first turn in power. President Mohammed Morsi’s governm
July 8, 2013
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Financial industry is serious about cybersecurity
The financial industry has been under a constant state of attack for the past year as hackers attempt to steal clients’ money, crash computer systems and disrupt capital markets. So far, the industry has been able to thwart the most serious attacks and protect its clients, but hackers are adapting and growing more dangerous. It is vital that Congress recognize the urgency of this situation and take action to provide the private sector with the tools and support it needs to defend the millions of
July 7, 2013
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] The free-trade charade
NEW YORK ― Though nothing has come of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Round of global trade negotiations since they were launched almost a dozen years ago, another round of talks is in the works. But this time the negotiations will not be held on a global, multilateral basis; rather, two huge regional agreements ― one transpacific, and the other transatlantic ― are to be negotiated. Are the coming talks likely to be more successful?The Doha Round was torpedoed by the United State
July 7, 2013
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Assimilation fears should not stop immigration reform
Now that the Senate has passed its immigration bill, the future of reform lies in the hands of the GOP-led House, where the debate will center on allowing a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living in this country without legal status. Opponents of this path often claim that low-skilled Mexicans, who make up the largest subgroup, are not fitting into U.S. society ― that they don’t want to assimilate and are fated to remain a permanent underclass.Solid evidence suggests these claims a
July 7, 2013
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What Abe can learn from Japan Inc.’s mavericks
There’s no shortage of pundits eager to tell Shinzo Abe how to shake up Japan’s economy. Instead of looking to academics for advice, though, the prime minister should get into the trenches with some of the nation’s more unconventional corporate heads. Abe talks, for example, about wanting to make Japanese companies worldlier. For pointers, he should study what Tadashi Yanai has already accomplished at Fast Retailing Co., home of the Uniqlo brand. Yanai has become Japan’s richest man ― and the on
July 7, 2013