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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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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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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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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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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French action in Mali gives U.S. breathing space
It took the fear that Mali’s capital would fall to Islamic militants for the U.S. and France to part agreeably on the question of intervention. France has sent troops; the U.S. won’t, though it will help in other ways. That’s an appropriate division of labor, given the different stakes the countries have in Mali. It’s a welcome one, too. The U.S. can’t spearhead every battle against jihadists with global ambitions. If U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen created that impression, the
Jan. 20, 2013
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[Robert Reich] Break up Wall Street giants
TARP, the infamous Troubled Assets Relief Program that bailed out Wall Street in 2008, is finally over. The Treasury Department recently announced it will soon be completing the sale of the remaining shares it owns of the banks and of General Motors.But it’s not really over. The biggest Wall Street banks are now far bigger than they were four years ago when they were considered too big to fail. The five largest have almost 44 percent of all U.S. bank deposits. That’s up from 37 percent in 2007,
Jan. 20, 2013
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2013 to be a testing year for Asian economies
The growth rate of emerging Asian economies is expected to increase in 2013. But inflation and gloomy external conditions still pose a challenge for the macroeconomic policies of many of these economies. In the medium term, their growth rate will be higher than other regions but lower than it was before the global financial crisis. This squarely puts the focus on economic reform and restructuring.Though Asia’s economy is likely to bottom out this year, it will find it difficult to overcome the p
Jan. 20, 2013
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The global Indian
KOCHI, INDIA ― No other country has anything like it ― an annual jamboree of its diaspora, conducted with great fanfare by its government. India has been doing it, with great success, for a decade, timed to recall the return to India of the most famous Indian expatriate of them all, Mahatma Gandhi, who alighted from his South African ship in Bombay on Jan. 9, 1915. As I write, the southern port city of Kochi is overflowing with expatriate Indians celebrating their connection to their motherland.
Jan. 20, 2013
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[Zaki Ladi] Will France have to go it alone on security affairs?
PARIS ― In less than two years, France has carried out three decisive foreign military interventions. In March 2011, its airstrikes in Libya (alongside those of Great Britain) thwarted Colonel Muammar el-Gadhafi’s troops as they prepared to retake the city of Benghazi. A month later, French forces in Cote d’Ivoire arrested President Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to recognize his rival’s election victory, putting the country at risk of civil war. Now France has intervened in Mali.The latest int
Jan. 20, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Afghanistan’s changing ways
NEW DELHI ― For Americans weary of nearly a dozen years of war, Afghanistan often seems like a country where nothing ever changes and the same story of ethnic and tribal struggle repeats itself in an endless loop. But Afghanistan’s demographics have changed in significant ways over the past decade. Rather than being mired in a perpetual feudal twilight, it’s actually becoming a modern country. The statistical evidence of change, gathered from USAID data and other sources, is overwhelming. The ur
Jan. 18, 2013
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Hollande proving himself a wise warrior
PARIS ― Socialist French President Francois Hollande is in the pilot’s seat in the world’s latest military incursion. We’re not used to seeing the French lead the way into battle, but it’s becoming increasingly frequent.Some 63 percent of the French support Hollande’s decision to take military action in Mali, according to a poll conducted by the French Institute of Public Opinion. So why have the French suddenly developed such an itchy trigger finger?Under center-right former President Nicolas S
Jan. 18, 2013
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[Robert Reich] The hoax of ‘entitlement reform’
It has become accepted economic wisdom that the only way to get control over America’s looming budget deficits is to “reform entitlements.”The accepted wisdom is wrong.Republicans trot out federal budget data showing a 32 percent increase in direct payments to individuals since the start of 2009 ― including food stamps, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation and subsidized housing.But these expenditures are temporary. They’ve resulted from the deepest economic downturn since the Great Dep
Jan. 17, 2013
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No room for glitches in college entrance exams
Officials of the unified college entrance exams and universities that use the test for screening students must not allow a repeat of last year’s confusion. They should double-check whether their preparations are foolproof.About 570,000 applicants will take the test to be held Saturday and Sunday. A record 840 universities and junior colleges ― national, prefectural, municipal and private ― will use the test as part of their screening process.We urge the National Center for University Entrance Ex
Jan. 17, 2013
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Megatrends: Reading the crystal ball of the NIC
Noted philosopher and aphorist Yogi Berra once said that “making predictions is hard, especially about the future.” The U.S. National Intelligence Council hasn’t been deterred by the inherent difficulty of that endeavor, as it has just produced its sixth report on the state of the world some two decades in the future. It is an exhilarating assessment, although the ultimate outcome remains unknowable ― and it isn’t clear if the ability to see the future would prepare us any better for it. Neverth
Jan. 17, 2013
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Not so smoking gun
By mid-2014 Indonesia will begin to be a healthier nation ― if we can slide down the utterly unenviable world ranking regarding the number of smokers in this country. A government regulation signed just before Christmas and announced on Wednesday will make selling cigarettes much harder.The regulation restricts the forms and timing of broadcast tobacco advertisements and their billboards will be banned from major roads. The labels of “mild”, “light” or “slim” suggesting safer products will also
Jan. 17, 2013
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[Salman Haidar] In pursuit of peace along the line of control
The incident on the line of control (LOC) in which Indian soldiers lost their lives and their bodies were mutilated has shocked the country and cast a pall over relations between India and Pakistan. There have been calls for retribution and demands that such actions should not go unpunished. The government has been put under pressure to respond, its strong statements and diplomatic demarches not being sufficient to allay public indignation or to meet the demand for action, not words. The situati
Jan. 17, 2013
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U.S. Congress can resolve the debt-limit crisis
In the final news conference of his first term, President Barack Obama called the increasingly real specter of a U.S. default “irresponsible” and “absurd.” Yet the absurd has become sadly commonplace in Washington. Consider Obama’s news conference itself: At the same time he was comparing Congress to a bunch of deadbeat diners who refuse to pay their bill, the president was careful to say this was a crisis Congress would have to solve. It is not exactly a confidence-inspiring message. It is true
Jan. 16, 2013
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[Robert J. Shiller] The right metaphor for Obama
NEW HAVEN ― As U.S. President Barack Obama begins his second term, he needs a simple way to express his vision and policies for the economy ― a metaphor around which support for his policies might crystallize, thereby boosting his administration’s political effectiveness. So, what makes a successful metaphor work?The 2008 Obama campaign used the slogan “Change we can believe in.” But “change” is not a metaphor for a new government: it does not stand for any policies. Nor does “Hope” or “Yes we c
Jan. 16, 2013
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Chaos and pathos in Korean adoptions
How would you feel if your baby was seized from your arms by government officials? Just ask a Korean-born American mother. How would you feel if you were being investigated by the prosecution for child abduction for adopting a child? Ask the same mother. How would you feel if you were accused of violating adoption law for assisting a mother in having her child adopted by a loving family? Ask a young dedicated Korean director of a homeless shelter for women. And how would you feel if you were bei
Jan. 16, 2013
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[Meghan Daum] How will Clinton’s next drama unfold?
Watching Hillary Rodham Clinton’s exit from the State Department is a little like watching the season-ending episode of a popular television series that may not come back the next year. As loyal as its viewers are, there are always wary network executives and even exhausted writers and producers who’d just as soon let it go. It’s a good policy, after all, to leave your audience wanting more.Clinton’s finale could hardly have been more dramatic. After falling ill with a stomach virus in early Dec
Jan. 16, 2013
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[Peter Singer] Ethical issues in buying land in developing countries
MELBOURNE ― Should rich countries ― or investors based there ― be buying agricultural land in developing countries? That question is raised in Transnational Land Deals for Agriculture in the Global South, a report issued last year by the Land Matrix Partnership, a consortium of European research institutes and nongovernmental organizations.The report shows that since 2000, investors or state bodies in rich or emerging countries have bought more than 83 million hectares (more than 200 million acr
Jan. 16, 2013
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[Daniel Fiedler] Murder, suicide and movies
A few years ago the movie “I am Legend” played in movie theaters in South Korea. This zombie/horror movie was very popular with the South Korean public. However in an interesting twist for South Korean moviegoers the lead character played by Will Smith dies at the end of the movie.The fact that the lead character died in the South Korean ending is especially remarkable when considered in contrast to the American ending, the lead character survives and saves mankind. And while this seems a minor
Jan. 15, 2013
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Is the world prepared for driverless cars?
Picture it. You slip into your car, recline and start reading the day’s news on your smartphone. The vehicle accelerates, smoothly navigates traffic and seamlessly merges onto the freeway, without your lifting a finger. All around you, other autonomous cars zoom by. Each operates safely at high speeds, halving your commute time. Each drives with precision, eliminating congestion and conserving fuel. Each respects pedestrians, avoids collisions and always takes the most efficient route. Your car
Jan. 15, 2013
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Shedding uncool aspects of Japan’s colonial past
If his government proceeds to review apologies that Japan previously tendered for its World War II aggression, new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be starting his diplomacy with Asian countries on the wrong foot.His Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has indicated there might be a review of the decision in 1993 to apologize for direct Japanese coercion of 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries into brothels to serve Japanese soldiers during World W
Jan. 15, 2013