Most Popular
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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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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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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Naver will consider company benefits in deciding on selling Line shares: CEO
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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[Kim Seong-kon] We need able men, not incompetent saints
Although people realize the necessity of parliamentary confirmations for cabinet nominees, they frown upon the process. The reason is obvious. Instead of examining a person’s abilities and qualifications, the hearing committee members tend to viciously bring forth all sorts of allegations and suspicions. During the process, they brutally expose all of the past mistakes and misdeeds of the nominee, thereby turning the supposedly solemn hearing into a scandal-rousing session. Everybody has a skele
Feb. 5, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Syria policy is Kerry’s priority
WASHINGTON ― John Kerry’s first task as incoming secretary of state should be to develop a coherent policy for Syria, where U.S. sanctions are proving counterproductive, the fighting around Damascus is deadlocked, the economy is in ruins and the country is headed toward a sectarian breakup. This grim prognosis for Syria is based on the latest reports provided to the State Department by opposition forces working with the Free Syrian Army. The military situation in Damascus is described as a stale
Feb. 4, 2013
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Spain’s economy needs a bold new approach
If you catch yourself feeling a little more optimistic about Europe’s economic prospects now that the cost of government borrowing has eased, take a look at Spain. With an unemployment rate of 26 percent ― about one in three of all jobless people across the euro area ― Spain is entering its fifth year of recession and the pace of contraction is actually accelerating. The country’s austerity-first approach to budget policy is a main reason. Nobody doubts that Spain needs further economic reform,
Feb. 4, 2013
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Will this immigration reform push go the distance?
Immigration reform is having a “Kumbaya” moment, with support from the White House, a bipartisan contingent in Congress, business and labor. The Republicans are petrified after their dismal showing among the fastest-growing slices of the electorate, Hispanics and Asians; President Barack Obama wants to reward the loyalty of those voters. Business and labor, as well as many politicians, want to fix a totally dysfunctional system. There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, 5 percent o
Feb. 4, 2013
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The gun industry targets the children’s market
The gun industry isn’t the first to try to push deadly products into the hands of children.That distinction belongs to the tobacco industry, whose efforts have continued despite federal regulation, medical evidence and decades of efforts to raise social awareness about the horrors of addiction.When government cracked down on gimmicks like “Joe Camel,” loopholes were found, and then enlarged until you could drive a truck full of cigarettes right through them. Never underestimate the motivation of
Feb. 4, 2013
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Signs of a new progressive era in America
NEW YORK ― In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan came to office famously declaring that, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Thirty-two years and four presidents later, Barack Obama’s recent inaugural address, with its ringing endorsement of a larger role for government in addressing America’s ― and the world’s ― most urgent challenges, looks like it may bring down the curtain on that era.Reagan’s statement in 1981 was extraordinary. It signaled that Ameri
Feb. 4, 2013
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The political center resurgent in Israel
Few people were likely to have been as surprised by last week’s general election in Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu thought he went into the ballot from a position of strength and expected a mandate from voters, if not for him and his party, then certainly for the rightwing of the political spectrum where he is firmly rooted.Instead, Israeli voters divided almost exactly in half, and conservatives even lost four seats from the previous Parliament. It was a stunning rebuke,
Feb. 3, 2013
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[Joel Brinkley] Vietnam’s appetites unique
You don’t have to spend much time in Vietnam before you notice something unusual. You hear no birds singing, see no squirrels scrambling up trees or rats scurrying among the garbage. No dogs out for a walk.In fact, you see almost no wild or domesticated animals at all. Where’d they all go? You might be surprised to know: Most have been eaten.Of course, as with most states in the region, tigers, elephants, rhinos and other big animals are trafficked to China. At this, of course, Vietnam is hardly
Feb. 3, 2013
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How to get the most out of your worrying time
Edge.org is a website where really smart people write about subjects that make most people’s heads hurt. I check it out whenever I need to feel particularly stupid.Each year, John Brockman, the literary agent who runs the Edge Foundation, invites a group of ridiculously brilliant people to write essays about a single subject, usually a scientific one. This year’s subject was suggested by the technology historian George Dyson: “What should we be worried about?”Dyson’s premise: “(P)eople tend to w
Feb. 3, 2013
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[Shim Jae Hoon] North Korea tests both China and the world
SEOUL ― Repeating the past, North Korea’s young ruler Kim Jong-un has threatened the U.S. and South Korea with dire consequences for opposition to the nation’s missile adventurism. In a break from the past, Kim issued thinly disguised criticism of North Korea’s principal benefactors ― China and Russia. The latest turn in North Korea’s brinkmanship will test China’s newly installed party Secretary General Xi Jinping.In strident responses to U.N. Security Council’s Jan. 24 resolution stiffening sa
Feb. 3, 2013
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[Meghan Daum] Getting back at authors who mislead their readers
It’s not easy being a book consumer these days. For starters, books seem so long ― at least compared to the blog posts and online news items that have recalibrated the pace of the average American attention span.And that’s not the half of it. Some books will kill your dreams. Worse, they’ll build up your dreams and then knock them down without so much as a refund or a credit for a Frappuccino at Barnes & Noble. When that happens, the only choice is to sue.At least that seems to be the logic of R
Feb. 3, 2013
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Mali demands a muscular U.S. strategy
Over the last weekend came welcome news that Obama administration officials had stopped dithering and moved to provide help urgently sought by the French in their battle against al-Qaida terrorists in Mali: U.S. officials dispatched air tankers to refuel French warplanes.We hope that ends weeks of Hamlet-like indecision at the White House over how much logistical aid to provide in the battle to keep Mali from becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida. The U.S. should provide all the support the French
Feb. 1, 2013
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[Yoon Young-kwan] Lesson from the ‘Sleepwalkers’
SEOUL ― Whether East Asia’s politicians and pundits like it or not, the region’s current international relations are more akin to 19th-century European balance-of-power politics than to the stable Europe of today.Witness East Asia’s rising nationalism, territorial disputes, and lack of effective institutional mechanisms for security cooperation. While economic interdependence among China, Japan, South Korea and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations continues to deepen, their
Feb. 1, 2013
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[Michael Boskin] Leviathan, Buchanan analysis
STANFORD ― A successful society needs effective, affordable government to perform its necessary functions well, and that includes sufficient revenue to fund those functions. But a government that grows too large, centralized, bureaucratic, and expensive substantially impairs the private economy by eroding individual initiative and responsibility; crowding out private investment, consumption, and charity; and damaging incentives with high tax rates. It also risks crowding out necessary government
Jan. 31, 2013
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Powers need to engage, manage North Korea
Just as the global community was daydreaming about permanent peace in the Korean Peninsula stemming from what many billed as a first good first year in power for the young Kim Jong-un, the world was quickly brought back into reality in an abrupt manner.North Korea launched a long-range rocket. Condemnation from the United Nations quickly followed. Pyongyang retaliated just as quickly by threatening to carry out a third nuclear test allegedly designed to “take down” the United States.“We are not
Jan. 31, 2013
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Abe’s strategy for building a strong Japan
As the 150-day ordinary Diet session kicked off Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered his first policy speech since becoming prime minister following the Liberal Democratic Party’s victory in the Dec. 16 Lower House election. He said Japan is facing crises with regard to the economy, damage from the 3/11 disasters, diplomacy and education. He pledged to do his best to resolve these crises.Conspicuously he avoided mention of his controversial ideas of changing the government’s interpretatio
Jan. 31, 2013
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Battling bullies
What makes bullying so terrible is that it takes something full of brightness ― childhood ― and buries it in darkness. Bullying is a sordid reality in our schools that has caused many children deep suffering and distress. There are too many instances of children being so harassed that they become physically ill ― or worse.It’s time bullying was regarded as what it is: aberrant behaviour. This month, St. Louis University Laboratory Elementary School (SLU-LES) in Baguio city (north Philippines) ha
Jan. 31, 2013
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[Andrew Sheng] Deposit insurance traced back to Qing Dynasty
I love the Internet. The best Christmas present I got last year was a preview of a forthcoming book by a banker and historian in Boston. He sent me electronically his Ph.D. thesis, a piece of masterly detective work on how ideas travel over time and space, become adopted successfully in a different place, and then come back to where they started.Dr. Frederic Grant Jr.’s forthcoming book uncovered how that the U.S. bank deposit insurance system has its root in ideas borrowed from Canton of the 19
Jan. 31, 2013
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[David Ignatius] In ’56 crisis, some parallels
WASHINGTON ― Chuck Hagel means it when he describes himself as an “Eisenhower Republican.” He kept a bust of President Dwight Eisenhower in his Senate office for a dozen years, and has a portrait of Ike on the wall of his current office at Georgetown University. But the most compelling evidence of Hagel’s fascination is that he purchased three-dozen copies of an Eisenhower biography and gave copies to President Obama, Vice President Biden and then-Defense Secretary Bob Gates, according to the bo
Jan. 30, 2013
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U.S. Congress comes out of hiding on immigration
A marginalized group emerged from the shadows Monday to assert that they indeed have a voice, and a future, in American society. We speak, of course, of members of Congress. After years of scurrying for political cover, a brave handful of senators held a daylight, weekday news conference in Washington to present ― in writing ― a surprisingly detailed outline for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws. This is new. What’s more, the group of senators backing the outline is thoroughly bipartisan
Jan. 30, 2013