Most Popular
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'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
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Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Indonesia’s KF-21 fighter jet deal cut back -- what’s next?
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[KH Explains] Can tech firms' AI alliances take on Nvidia?
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Police seek arrest warrant for med student who killed girlfriend
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Korean battery makers heave sigh of relief over 2-year IRA reprieve
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Over 80,000 millionaires, 20 billionaires in Seoul: report
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Local filmmakers criticize ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ monopoly of screens
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Will China's self-sufficient dream in HBM come true?
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Chavez shows ‘elected autocrat’ isn’t oxymoron
Hugo Chavez is something of a challenge to the worldview of many rich-country observers. His election victory this week has given him, health permitting, a new six-year term as Venezuela’s president. He’s the leading elected autocrat in Latin America and maybe the world. “Elected autocrat” is a confusing category. According to the model that prevailed for decades after 1945, there are really just two kinds of state: free and unfree. Democracy, good. Autocracy, bad. Chavez represents a third way,
Oct. 12, 2012
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[David Ignatius] A revolt’s extremist threat
ALEPPO, Syria ― Leading the fight in Sakhour on the eastern side of this embattled city is the Tawafuk Battalion of the Free Syrian Army. It reports to a new coordinating body known as the Military Council, according to Mustafa Shabaan, the acting commander of Tawafuk. But wait a minute: A young fighter named Thaer tells me there are six or seven other battalions fighting in Sakhour, too, in what many claim is the decisive battle for Aleppo. Who commands these disparate fighters? And what about
Oct. 12, 2012
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Monetary easing and growth
NEW YORK ― Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic took extraordinary monetary-policy measures in September: the long awaited “QE3” (the third dose of quantitative easing by the United States Federal Reserve), and the European Central Bank’s announcement that it will purchase unlimited volumes of troubled eurozone members’ government bonds. Markets responded euphorically, with stock prices in the U.S., for example, reaching post-recession highs.Others, especially on the political right, worr
Oct. 11, 2012
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U.S. government should settle with Abdullah Kidd
In the aftermath of 9/11, the federal government allowed its anxiety about possible future attacks to overwhelm its commitment to due process and the rule of law. An early manifestation of that overreaction was the rounding up of Arab and Muslim men on the pretext of holding them as potential witnesses at the trials of others.One victim of that policy was Abdullah Kidd, who was known as Lavoni Kidd when he played football for the University of Idaho. A convert to Islam, Kidd was arrested in 2003
Oct. 11, 2012
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Democratic system no excuse for inaction
When former Taiwan Vice President Vincent Siew said last week that he has seldom found Taiwanese society so powerless and lost, he cut his old boss some slack by highlighting the challenge of democratic governance. Gone is the autocratic era when decisions were made by a few people and could be quickly implemented; the president now has to build consensus, Siew later pointed out. Democratic inefficiency has been much talked about after the Great Recession. People were shocked by the ineptitude o
Oct. 11, 2012
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Diet must get to work
Although both the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the No. 1 opposition Liberal Democratic Party have chosen their new party leaders, the ruling and opposition forces still cannot agree on when to start an extraordinary Diet session. The primary responsibility rests on Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. He must fulfill his promise to then LDP chief Sadakazu Tanigaki to dissolve the Lower House “in the near future” by clearly showing when he will do so. If he does so, the ruling and opposition fo
Oct. 11, 2012
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Stimulus versus discipline: Which is the right road?
The world’s finance ministers face a crucial opportunity when they meet this week. At stake is a sustainable economic recovery, but their weighty task is to find the balance between monetary easing and financial discipline that will deliver it.The meeting will focus on the budget stand-off in the U.S. and the debt crisis in Europe.The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank this year was timely indeed. The gathering of the world’s economic decision-makers came amid
Oct. 11, 2012
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[Peh Shing Huei] Icebreaker for China-Taiwan ties
Cross-strait relations are adding a curious shade of brown.As the green of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) edges towards the communist reds on the mainland, an earthy tone is being splashed across one of the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoints.It is not a bad thing, said analysts, as former Taiwan premier Frank Hsieh, the highest-ranking DPP leader to visit the mainland, wrapped up his five-day landmark trip here.Beijing must be happy that even the pro-independence party
Oct. 11, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Face to face with a revolution
ALEPPO, Syria ― A red-faced fighter named Faisal arrives at the forward headquarters of the Free Syrian Army pleading for weapons. He’s just come from the front line in a neighborhood called Sakhour, which has been under attack by the government’s forces for three weeks. As he shouts at his superiors, you can hear the thunder of incoming artillery about a half mile away. Faisal rages that his men are dying and he needs rocket-propelled grenades to fight the tanks of President Bashar al-Assad’s a
Oct. 10, 2012
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New style, but still the same old North Korea
Pyongyang again disappointed those predicting it was about to change its ways. For months, experts and major media organizations have proclaimed imminent economic reform, even declaring that “North Korea has virtually abandoned the planned economy.” A rare second Supreme People’s Assembly this year could only mean codification of free-market principles, or so it was argued.Yet the legislative assembly came and went in late September with nary a whisper of economic reform. What went wrong? There
Oct. 10, 2012
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Climate-change denial getting harder to defend
It was a long hot summer.The United States experienced the warmest July in its history, with more than 3,000 heat records broken across the country. Overall, the summer was the nation’s third warmest on record and comes in a year that is turning out to be the hottest ever. High temperatures along with low precipitation generated drought conditions across 60 percent of the Lower 48 states, which affected 70 percent of the corn and soybean crop and rendered part of the Mississippi River non-naviga
Oct. 10, 2012
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Living with death by drone
Last week, Stanford University and New York University released a major study about the use of drones in the ever-evolving but never-ending war on terror. Unfortunately, many commentators missed the report’s key message: Drones are terrorizing an entire civilian population.I was one of the researchers for the study, and spent weeks in Pakistan interviewing more than 60 people from North Waziristan. Many were survivors of strikes. Others had lost loved ones and family members. All of them live un
Oct. 10, 2012
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[Harold Brown] Syria’s turmoil poses toughest challenge yet
WASHINGTON, DC ― More than any of the previous events in the Arab Spring, Syria’s turmoil has presented serious difficulties for Western policymakers. Just as Syria comprises a more complex society than the other Arab countries currently in the throes of political transition, so, too, are its external relations more complex. As a result, any attempt at decisive military intervention would be not only difficult, but also extremely risky.Syria’s leading role in Lebanon, even after withdrawing its
Oct. 10, 2012
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Romney’s debate win doesn’t make it 1980 again
Mitt Romney’s winning performance in last week’s presidential debate has reinforced his campaign’s belief that this election parallels the one in 1980: In troubled times, Republicans inevitably defeat an unpopular Democratic president. While Romney gets to hit the reset button after President Barack Obama’s desultory display, he’d better not count on the 1980 analogy. Ronald Reagan’s victory over Jimmy Carter wasn’t inevitable; it was earned, with some help from outsiders. The environment was fa
Oct. 9, 2012
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[Daniel Fiedler] Suicide for justice
Last week a 61-year-old woman jumped from her fifth floor apartment to her death. Her act was, once again, the last desperate attempt by a crime victim in South Korea to obtain justice. Her sad tale started when she checked into a hospital last year and was raped by a 27-year-old man who worked at the hospital. After she reported the rape to the police the young man failed a lie detector test and the case proceeded to court. However, last month the court released the accused, reasoning that as t
Oct. 9, 2012
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Turning Iran’s currency crisis into a revolution
Amid the usual hyperbolic conspiracy theories, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said something incisive in a televised address last week: that the West is waging economic “war” against Iran. He’s right, and the Iranian rial’s death spiral is the first clear sign that we’re on a path to victory. The 40 percent drop by the rial against the dollar since late September is a symptom of larger woes: oil exports are at 1 million barrels a day, down from 2.2 million last year; quarterly oil revenue
Oct. 9, 2012
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From bitterness to grace: Comfort women and the Korean ‘han’
Koreans have many things to be proud of. South Korea rose from the ashes of civil war to become an economically advanced democracy. Its companies (e.g., Hyundai, Samsung) and celebrities (e.g., Psy) stride on the world’s stage. However, outside observers are less enamored with a widespread cultural trait, termed “han,” which describes a keen sense of sadness, victimhood and injustice. As described by Korean-American sociologist Jon Huer, han can “be inflicted on the Korean people by a foreign po
Oct. 9, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Funny English signs worldwide
As English has become a major international language, English signboards and directions are everywhere these days. Sometimes due to the difficulty of English usages and other times due to cultural differences, however, mistakes in English signs and directions can be found all over the world. Recently, Theresa Oh, who speaks fluent English, showed me a list of funny English signs and directions that can be found worldwide. All of them were quite amusing and hilarious, exhibiting language barriers
Oct. 9, 2012
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Strong offense and weak defense in debate
This was a debate for the green-eyeshade crowd. If you tuned in Wednesday night to see President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney offer inspiring visions for the future, you heard more numbers than you did paeans to America.The bottom line on engagement with an American public not five weeks from Election Day: Romney was alert, energized and confident. Obama slumped his shoulders, smiled mostly to himself, and for some reason kept staring down. He was that guy at the meeting who’s surreptitious
Oct. 8, 2012
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[Robert B. Reich] Mitt Romney and his own party
There are two major theories about why Mitt Romney is dropping in the polls. One is that Romney is a lousy candidate, unable to connect with people or make his case. The other is that Americans are finally beginning to see how radical the GOP has become and are repudiating it.Most Republicans hold to the first view, for obvious reasons. And their long knives are already out.Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan called the Romney campaign “incompetent” and “a rolling calamity.” Republican guru Will
Oct. 8, 2012