Most Popular
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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[Eye Interview] 'If you live to 100, you might as well be happy,' says 88-year-old bestselling essayist
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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From fake prostitution ring to nonexistent robber, prank calls hamper police
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Missing S. Korean traveler in Paris found safe after 2 weeks
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Defense chiefs of US, Australia, Japan decry NK-Russia military cooperation
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Every day brings new drama in Middle East
We are witnessing the most extraordinary moment in the Middle East since I began following events there 25 years ago. Every day brings a new ground-breaking development ― things that would lead newspapers all by themselves, anytime, anywhere.The United Nations General Assembly vote on “Palestine” was perhaps the most amazing event. Only nine of 193 nations voted against the motion.Of course they included the United States and Israel. Add to that Canada, the Czech Republic and Panama. The rest we
Dec. 10, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Our autocratic man in Cairo
WASHINGTON ― How did Washington become the best friend of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, even as President Mohamed Morsi was asserting dictatorial powers and his followers were beating up secular liberals in the streets of Cairo? It’s a question many Arabs are asking these days and it deserves an answer. Morsi and his Brotherhood followers are on a power trip after decades of isolation and persecution. You could see that newfound status when Morsi visited the United Nations in September, and e
Dec. 10, 2012
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Big money still had destructive role in U.S. polls
The fears that big money would corrupt the political process in 2012 weren’t realized, the conventional wisdom says. The fat cats, unshackled by U.S. Supreme Court and lower court decisions, weren’t able to buy the presidency or the Senate. True. It also misses the point. About $6 billion was spent on the campaign, and outside groups poured $1.3 billion into political races, according to data from the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Responsive Politics. Supporters of the Citizens
Dec. 10, 2012
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The folly of DIA’s spy-recruiting spree
Wasn’t the U.S. defense budget supposed to be in for some belt-tightening by now? Whereas President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, waged war the old-fashioned way, with troops and tanks, Obama has been busy outsourcing the dirty work of protecting and furthering America’s interests to CIA drones, private contractors, local mobs with ties to terrorists, and even the French.It was looking as if the Department of Defense could pack up, because the administration didn’t leave it with mu
Dec. 10, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Why we must stop obsessing about budget deficit
I wish President Obama would explain to the nation that the federal budget deficit isn’t the nation’s major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn’t be our major goal.Our biggest problem is lack of good jobs and sufficient growth. And our goal must be to revive both.Deficit reduction leads us in the opposite direction ― away from jobs and growth.The reason the “fiscal cliff” is dangerous (and it’s not really a “cliff” but more like a hill, because we won’t fall off it immediately on Jan.
Dec. 10, 2012
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[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Europe’s economic war
NEWPORT BEACH ― I was nine years old when Egypt entered what became known as its “war of attrition” with Israel. During this period of “no war and no peace,” underlying tensions festered, and a fragile tranquility was periodically interrupted by armed skirmishes. The war of attrition followed the June 1967 war, in which Egypt ― to the immense surprise of most of its citizens and the outside world ― was soundly defeated. Its air force was crippled and its army was virtually overrun, with Israel c
Dec. 9, 2012
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Hospital incentives help reduce elective birth
The evidence has been in for some time. Scheduling births may be convenient for physicians, hospitals and expectant parents, but it generally isn’t good for the health of mothers and children. It’s expensive to boot. To get a baby to arrive on schedule, doctors often perform a cesarean section, the most common surgery in the U.S. Since 1996, C-section rates have risen every year to 33 percent of all births in 2009. According to the World Health Organization, the right figure for any country is a
Dec. 9, 2012
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[Eli Park Sorensen] The arrival of a train and its many meanings
Auguste and Louis Lumière’s 50-second silent picture “The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station” from 1895 ― one of the earliest films ever made ― follows a train gradually approaching the camera until it passes at close range. The story goes that when the film was shown for the first time, a panicking audience thought the train would crash through the screen and crush everyone in the cinema. It is a pivotal moment in the history of cinema, one that brings together extreme fictional realism, s
Dec. 9, 2012
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Sandy reminds Tribeca what life is like in Asia
New York’s brush with developing-nation status is an even bigger warning for Asia than it is for the U.S. The city could be excused for wondering if it had suddenly been transported to Bangladesh in October. The deadly floods and crippling power outages following Hurricane Sandy made for more than graphic television. They made a mockery of the climate-change deniers. Just ask residents of lower Manhattan as they referred to neighborhoods such as pricey Tribeca as “Little North Korea.” The Asia r
Dec. 9, 2012
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Why are our politics so scary? Blame Hollywood
I’ve finally figured out why we spend so much time treating our political opponents as implacably evil. It’s because Hollywood, which used to offer us villains we could love reviling, seems to have forgotten how to make its bad guys bad. The other night on “Homeland,” the uber-terrorist the good guys have been chasing for a season and a half finally got to tell his side of the story. As it turns out, he’s not evil. It’s just that his family was blown to bits at the dinner table by a U.S. drone s
Dec. 9, 2012
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The real reason Buffett should pay more taxes
For most of the past six decades, the U.S. government has taken a lenient approach toward taxing financial wealth. Dividends from stocks and gains on long-term investments are currently taxed at 15 percent, compared with rates on ordinary income as high as 35 percent. The differential treatment has resulted in such attention-grabbing distortions as Warren Buffett paying a smaller share of his income in taxes than his secretary, and Mitt Romney paying an effective federal rate of only 14.1 percen
Dec. 7, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Power of an economic NATO
BERLIN ― At a recent meeting of German business and foreign-policy leaders, one participant summed up an anxiety that’s almost palpable here: “Europeans have a sense of being left alone. You Americans don’t understand how much we need you.” Europeans seem relieved that Barack Obama won re-election. (One German official wrote in an informal paper that his victory was “the best thing that could have happened to the U.S.”) But Europeans remain worried that the Obama administration’s famous “pivot”
Dec. 7, 2012
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Going back to the future on filibuster reform
The Senate needs to go back to the future on filibuster reform. Senators should have to stand their ground and raise their voices on the Senate floor, around the clock if necessary, a la Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” to keep legislation from coming to a vote.Back in the day, a minority senator had to have strong personal convictions against legislation to undertake the onerous, sleep-depriving filibuster, talking and talking and talking to block action. Today, a senator, or a
Dec. 6, 2012
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[Omar Ashour] Egypt’s democratic dictator?
CAIRO ― Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first-ever elected civilian president, recently granted himself sweeping temporary powers in order, he claims, to attain the objectives of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. But the decrees incited strong opposition from many of the revolutionary forces that helped to overthrow Mubarak (as well as from forces loyal to him), with protests erupting anew in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.Morsi has thus been put in the odd position of having to defend h
Dec. 6, 2012
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Rise in bullying cases not cause for despair
Reported incidents of bullying nearly doubled between April and September this year, reaching 144,054 cases, compared with 70,000 cases for the entire previous school year, according to the education ministry.It might sound strange to say, but that increase may signal a certain step forward. The reasons for the huge increase in reported cases may have more to do with increased reporting, not necessarily more incidents.The real number of incidents in the past will remain unknown, but was surely u
Dec. 6, 2012
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A sign of openness
This may or may not be coincidence, but Xi Jinping’s first meeting with foreigners as general secretary of the Communist Party of China was with foreign experts working in China. That is a great way to highlight the nation’s gratitude to overseas friends who have contributed to its pursuit of prosperity. And an ideal occasion to showcase the desire to befriend the rest of the world. Those who were invited to sit down with the new CPC chief in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday,
Dec. 6, 2012
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Joint efforts needed to stop N.K. missile launch
North Korea recently announced it would launch a long-range ballistic missile between Monday and Dec. 22 under the guise of sending a “satellite” into orbit.However hard Pyongyang insists that its plan is to launch a satellite for peaceful purposes, the mechanism used to launch a missile is the same as that used to launch a satellite. It is a clear violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution prohibiting North Korea from conducting nuclear tests and “any launch using ballistic missile technol
Dec. 6, 2012
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[Niaz Murtaza] Five paradigms of globalization
Globalization provokes heated debates. While anti-globalization groups highlight the problems faced by developing countries from premature trade and capital inflow liberalization, its supporters emphasize the stagnation in countries like North Korea that remain delinked from the global economy.So, does globalization help or hurt developing countries?Since globalization is a complex concept, one must disaggregate it to answer this question meaningfully. Simply stated, globalization means an incre
Dec. 6, 2012
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Israel-Hamas could force rethink of ‘Pacific pivot’
The recent hostilities between Israel and Hamas are a chance for the United States to think strategically. Or, better yet, rethink ― specifically the Obama administration’s “pivot to the Pacific.”The challenge was issued ― “respectfully but forcefully” ― by Paul McHale, who has been a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania (1993-99) and an assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense (2003-09), and is a retired Marine colonel whose most recent deployment was to Afghanistan in 2007.At a
Dec. 5, 2012
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[David Ignatius] On Susan Rice, a close call
WASHINGTON ― The Republican assault on Susan Rice is a fabricated scandal, attacking her for repeating CIA talking points, almost verbatim, to explain the Benghazi attacks. The U.N. ambassador’s version, even with its omissions, may turn out to be closer to the truth than some of the inflammatory GOP rhetoric. But just because Rice is being unfairly pilloried, this doesn’t mean she would be a good secretary of state. And it’s a close call on the merits: Given her friendship with President Obama,
Dec. 5, 2012