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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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Profiles in peacemaking
NEW YORK ― Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy did the seemingly impossible. At the height of the Cold War, he moved the two nuclear superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, toward peace. The lessons of Kennedy’s act of leadership ― one of the greatest of modern times ― are directly relevant today.I recount this remarkable story in a new book, “To Move the World.” To many, war between the two superpowers seemed inevitable. The Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 created a glo
July 1, 2013
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Starving the squid
BERKELEY ― Is America’s financial sector slowly draining the lifeblood from its real economy? The journalist Matt Taibbi’s memorable description in 2009 of Goldman Sachs ― “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” ― still resonates, and for good reason.Back in 2011, I noted that finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP in 1950 compared to 8.4 percent of GDP three years
July 1, 2013
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Sub-Saharan Africa’s subprime borrowers
NEW YORK ― In recent years, a growing number of African governments have issued Eurobonds, diversifying away from traditional sources of finance such as concessional debt and foreign direct investment. Taking the lead in October 2007, when it issued a $750 million Eurobond with an 8.5 percent coupon rate, Ghana earned the distinction of being the first Sub-Saharan country ― other than South Africa ― to issue bonds in 30 years.This debut Sub-Saharan issue, which was four times oversubscribed, spa
July 1, 2013
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Quick move needed to save Egypt’s economy
Egypt is being convulsed by protests for and against the rule of President Mohammed Morsi on the one-year anniversary of his accession. Beneath the political turmoil and questions of legitimacy lie profound economic challenges that must be met by whoever governs Egypt. The nation’s hopes for “bread, freedom and social justice” are being overwhelmed by the slow pace of economic change. Instead of undertaking reforms, Egypt has been relying on its wealthy neighbors for unconditional cash injection
July 1, 2013
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Mess in Honduras has U.S. fingerprints
The State Department issued a new travel advisory last week for a neighbor state, Honduras, warning potential American visitors that they risk being kidnapped or killed. What’s more, it said, if they face a problem, the police may not even show up.If you do go, the advisory added, lock your car doors so robbers or kidnappers can’t burst in at traffic lights. Eighteen Americans have been killed there in the last two years. Police have arrested no one for any of those crimes.By now, many people kn
June 30, 2013
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[David Ignatius] No clipping these wings
WASHINGTON ― For an illustration of why the federal government has become so unmanageable, consider the Air Force’s attempt last year to cut its budget by retiring unneeded warplanes. This sensible policy ran into a shredder ― largely because of the political clout of the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve.Governors united across party lines to protest the potential loss of their pet C-130s and other planes. Members of Congress lined up behind the potent lobbying pressure of the Guard
June 30, 2013
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Germany’s case against the ECB
MUNICH ― Germany’s Constitutional Court is preparing what might become the most important decision in its history. Last September, the court allowed the German government to sign the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone’s permanent intergovernmental rescue facility. Now, however, it may try to stop the European Central Bank’s so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) program (the ECB’s pledge to buy, without limit, the government bonds of troubled eurozon
June 30, 2013
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Here’s the real economic crisis in Australia
Australia has been called many things: Oz; the land Down Under; the lucky country. But the equivalent of a collateralized-debt obligation? Canberra can’t be happy to hear its AAA-rated economy likened to one of the reviled investment vehicles that blew up amid the 2008 global crisis. Yet the comparison is being made by some economists, who see the asset underlying Australia ― demand from China ― beginning to evaporate. No country is more vulnerable to the much-dreaded slowdown in China than reso
June 30, 2013
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[Eli Park Sorensen] Reading Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ today
Following the dramatic news of the U.S. National Security Agency’s extensive surveillance operations, several organizations and journalists turned to George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in an attempt to find suitable words to describe the situation. The American Civil Liberties Union labeled the case “beyond Orwellian,” while numerous newspaper editorials worldwide made references to the acclaimed novel. Amazon recently reported that sales of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” had gone up 9,538 per
June 30, 2013
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Decrypting Snowden’s Russian layover
PARIS ― “A traitor is always useful,” a Russian security service friend said to me while discussing NSA contractor turned defector Edward Snowden’s arrival in his country.Snowden has fallen into the open arms of Mother Russia, where he was greeted at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport by a Russian security service contingent. The plan reportedly was for Snowden to pass through Russia en route to another country, after sharing America’s stolen secrets with Hong Kong authorities. As luck would have it,
June 28, 2013
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[Dominique Moisi] America’s disinterest in Europe
JERUSALEM ― “Europe is boring: thank God, for you and for us,” my interlocutor told me. “Today, drama is in the Middle East, growth is in Asia, hope is in Africa, and proximity to the United States is in Latin America. Europe is nowhere ― it has become the lost continent.”There is, of course, a little provocation and a lot of irony in these remarks. A few years ago, their speaker occupied important positions within U.S. diplomacy; he is now a key figure of the New York establishment. And his pro
June 28, 2013
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Gay-marriage ruling safeguards human dignity
The word “dignity” can’t be found in the Constitution, but in his majority opinion in U.S. v. Windsor, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy uses it no fewer than nine times (actually 10, if we include “indignity”). The foundation of the court’s opinion, and its real importance, lie in its insistence on human dignity as a constitutional value, one that stands at the heart of our longstanding commitment to equal protection of the laws. In Windsor, the court struck down a central provision of the
June 27, 2013
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[Robert Reich] Why the GOP can’t learn
It’s as if they didn’t learn a thing from the 2012 elections. Republicans are on the same suicide mission as before ― trying to block immigration reform (if they can’t scuttle it in the Senate, they’re ready to in the House), roll back the clock on abortion rights (they’re pushing federal and state legislation to ban abortions after the first 22 weeks) and stop gay marriage wherever possible.As almost everyone knows by now, this puts them on the wrong side of history. America is becoming more et
June 27, 2013
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On Indonesia’s mass organization bill
Apparently confident of its substance but cognisant they have “overlooked” the mass organizations, the subject of the bill on mass organizations, the House of Representatives agreed on Tuesday to postpone the passing of the bill into law until July 2.The postponement of the endorsement of this controversial bill will not provide any room for substantial changes, especially as the one-week delay is only for the House to inform mass organizations of the bill’s substance, particularly those article
June 27, 2013
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More organizations mean more taxpayers’ money
Controversies may rage as strong as the deluge-fed Himalayan torrents over the “larger issues” that contributed to the devastation in Uttarakhand. But there is unquestioned acceptance of what passes as the local administration having simply collapsed ― and the “unprecedented” nature of the downpour is a poor alibi. A common theme runs through the lament of the suffering: had it not been for India’s military and paramilitary there would have been virtually no rescue action. The district authoriti
June 27, 2013
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Taiwan gearing up for new war over trade in services with China?
Taiwan and China signed what is known as the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement in Shanghai on June 21, and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party is getting ready to start a new trade war between Taipei and Beijing, akin to the American beef and pork wars of 2010 and 2012.Shortly before the pact was signed, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang said President Ma Ying-jeou should call a halt to the signing, because the general public opposes it. Should it be signed, he threatened, his opposition pa
June 27, 2013
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[Kavi Chongkittavorn] ASEAN, China in tug-of-war on code of conduct
In the next few months, ASEAN and China must show the world they can find common ground, no matter how thin it may be. Their joint message must be clear: they can work and make progress together towards a binding code of conduct in the South China Sea. With such readiness, it would reduce the ill-feeling that has dominated the global media for the past two years.China’s new Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a successful maiden visit to Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei in early May. During t
June 27, 2013
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Court’s unsatisfying affirmative-action decision
There will come a day when the U.S. Supreme Court decides that affirmative action is no longer constitutional. The question is whether that day comes before or after the rest of America decides that affirmative action is no longer necessary. All that’s certain is that neither day is today. In a 7-to-1 ruling, the court agreed that the University of Texas can consider race as a factor in admissions. A diverse student body, wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, “is a constitutionally permissible goal.
June 26, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Fallout of Snowden’s actions
WASHINGTON ― Congress and the courts will sort out the big questions about privacy and surveillance posed by Edward Snowden’s disclosure of National Security Agency monitoring programs. In the meantime, there are some nagging smaller questions raised by this hemorrhage of secrets. These mundane questions interest me partly because the big privacy issues don’t seem all that shocking. In more than 34 years of traveling regularly overseas, I have assumed that foreign intelligence services are picki
June 26, 2013
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Canal in Nicaragua: A big dig ― or big scam?
Nicaragua’s $40 billion deal with a Chinese company to build a trans-oceanic waterway that will compete with the Panama Canal will either be Latin America’s most important economic project in more than a century or the biggest government scam in the region’s history.There are many reasons to think it may be the latter. The big question, however, is why reputable U.S. consulting firms ― including McKinsey, McLarty Associates and former Transparency International anti-corruption crusader Ronald Ma
June 26, 2013