Most Popular
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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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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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Public backlash against division of Gyeonggi Province under 'corny' name
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
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Uzbekistan deserves better
Not long after I spoke out against a massacre of mostly peaceful protesters in Uzbekistan in 2005, I was arrested by government security services and taken away. I was drugged, beaten, falsely accused of directing the uprising, charged with financial crimes and sentenced to 14 years in prison. There I was put to work in a brick factory, and my health deteriorated.During the brutally cold January of 2008, as a punishment for political prisoners, three other inmates and I were put for five freezin
Aug. 20, 2012
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[Andrew Sheng] Central banking no longer august profession
Central banking used to be an august profession ― highly respected, almost revered, mainly because they looked after everybody’s money. But now that Wall Street can print more money than God, and the Fed and European Central Bank are still printing money to keep their economies from deflating, central bankers have lost their god-like status. Every year in August, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas would host an event in Jackson Hole for central bankers and key thinkers about money to debate the
Aug. 20, 2012
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[Peter Singer] The real abortion tragedy
MELBOURNE ― In the Dominican Republic last month, a pregnant teenager suffering from leukemia had her chemotherapy delayed, because doctors feared that the treatment could terminate her pregnancy and therefore violate the nation’s strict anti-abortion law. After consultations between doctors, lawyers, and the girl’s family, chemotherapy eventually was begun, but not before attention had again been focused on the rigidity of many developing countries’ abortion laws.Abortion receives extensive med
Aug. 19, 2012
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Ethanol in gas tanks makes food cost more
Record-high corn prices should be sending a clear message to policy makers in Washington: Requiring people to put corn-based fuel in their gas tanks is a bad idea. Since 2005, the U.S. government has mandated that gasoline contain ethanol, almost all of it derived from corn. The policy, ostensibly aimed at reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil and at improving the environment, has been a bonanza for farmers. Land planted with corn soared by a fourth after Congress passed the Energy In
Aug. 19, 2012
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Russians hold an election in cyberspace
Russia’s opposition, notorious for its lack of organization, has devised an innovative way to choose legitimate leaders: a primary election held mainly on the Web.Some of the biggest names in the Russian Internet ― including Web guru Anton Nosik and Ilya Segalovich, a co-founder of Yandex, the search engine that tops Google in Russia ― are working to get the technology ready for an Oct. 7 vote. The aim is to elect a coordinating council of 45 people who can organize rallies, speak for the broade
Aug. 19, 2012
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Maine lobster tastes best with dash of supply side
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as lobster. Or so you might think from reading this summer’s news in Maine, which speaks volumes, or crates, about the farcical nature of North American trade policy. First, to the dark side of the story, which involves, if not a tragedy, a tragically long dispute over the lumber trade. For decades, the U.S. has been alleging that Canada unfairly holds down the price of timber for its producers, squeezing out the noble U.S. lumberman, hurting his in
Aug. 19, 2012
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[Eli Park Sorensen] Exploring boundary between man and machine
Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go” (2005) presents a new interpretation of an old theme in popular culture ― technophobia. From Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” (1818) and H.G. Wells’ “The Island of Doctor Moreau” (1896) to contemporary movies like “The Matrix” (1999) and “The Island” (2005) ― technophobia, or, the fear of technology, has been a recurrent theme in the cultural imagination throughout the ages of the modern world.In Ishiguro’s dystopian sci-fi novel, we follow three young
Aug. 19, 2012
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In the long run, Arab Spring might help Israel
A few months ago, as I was speaking to a non-profit group about how developments in the Arab world would affect Israel, I noticed the faces in the crowd looking back at me with deep skepticism. I understood the reason.I was arguing that there is a possibility ― not a certainty ― that Israel will eventually emerge safer than before as a result of the Arab revolutions, also known as the Arab Spring. I have not changed my mind.Let me be clear: I know there are no guarantees and great risk. A period
Aug. 17, 2012
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[David Ignatius] What the election is all about
WASHINGTON ― The politics of “sequestration” illustrate the talent of congressional Republicans, led by Rep. Paul Ryan for being on both sides of the budget issue: They play a game of “chicken” with federal outlays, demanding a balanced budget without tax increases, and then insist that it’s the Democrats’ fault if there’s a crackup. This fiscal impasse will be a dramatic backdrop for the fall presidential campaign: As Election Day approaches, the clock will be ticking on across-the-board cuts o
Aug. 17, 2012
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Japan will have to hold on to pacifist principle
Japan marked the 67th anniversary of its surrender to Allied Powers in World War II on Wednesday. This year’s anniversary was different from past anniversaries. It came amid moves by several political parties to change the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.In this situation it is all the more important for every citizen to ponder Japan’s modern war in the 1930s and 1940s. The security situation surrounding Japan these days is not easy. But this should not be used as justification for
Aug. 16, 2012
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[Itamar Rabinovich] Sinai powder keg and Israel
TEL AVIV ― The crisis in the Sinai Peninsula seems to have been dwarfed by Sunday’s drama in Cairo. But Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s civilian coup, in which he dismissed General Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the army’s supreme command, has not diminished the importance of the trouble there.Earlier this month, jihadi terrorists ambushed an Egyptian military base in Sinai, killing 16 Egyptian soldiers. They then hijacked two armored personnel carriers and sped toward the frontier wi
Aug. 16, 2012
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‘Material Girl’ shows she has substance, too
Not everybody likes Madonna. But one reason the controversial Queen of Pop continues to be popular around the world is her compelling embrace of individual freedom.In Moscow on Tuesday, Madonna urged authorities to free the three women in the punk-rock band Pussy Riot, who were arrested for staging a protest in an Orthodox church against Russian President Vladimir Putin.Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, could face up to three years in prison for sto
Aug. 16, 2012
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An elected president sidelines the generals
Egypt has undergone a revolution of sorts. No, not the one last year, when weeks of mass protests forced the resignation of longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak.That revolution had been substantially frustrated by the Egyptian military, which had been allied with Mubarak and which refused to relinquish power ― even as Egyptians were in the midst of exerting their unprecedented right to choose their new leader in June.But over the weekend, the country’s newly elected president, Mohammed Morsi, cashier
Aug. 16, 2012
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Carbon taxes cut debt and cool the planet
Absent some profound shift in our penchant for burning coal, oil and gas, the Earth is expected to warm as much as 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years, causing more weather-related destruction. It’s only responsible to force a shift away from fossil fuels by enacting a carbon tax. The U.S., which accounts for about 19 percent of global emissions today, should take the lead in doing so as part of broader tax reform. The benefits of such a tax are clear: It would raise immediate revenu
Aug. 16, 2012
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[Shashi Tharoor] U.S. presidential election and India’s American ties
NEW DELHI ― With America’s presidential election looming, perhaps its most striking aspect from an Indian point of view is that no one in New Delhi is unduly concerned about the outcome. There is now a broad consensus in Indian policymaking circles that, whoever wins, India-United States relations are more or less on the right track.Democrats and Republicans alike have both been responsible for this development. President Barack Obama’s successful visit to India in 2010, and his historic speech
Aug. 16, 2012
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[Zaki Ladi] Economy and Olympic medals
PARIS ― Is there a link between economic power and Olympic medals? Is a form of multipolarity in sports emerging as political multipolarity sets in?In 1992, immediately after the Cold War’s end, the United States and the former Soviet Union’s “Unified Team” won a quarter of the medals in Barcelona. Global bipolarity had not yet vanished. By the 2008 Beijing games, the world had changed significantly. The Soviet-American duopoly had given way to a Sino-American duopoly, which won a combined 20 pe
Aug. 15, 2012
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Don’t blame discrimination for gender wage gap
It’s a staple of feminist rhetoric: Women make less money than men because of discrimination. “We’d all like to think, in 2012, that pay discrimination is a thing of the past,” the progressive activist Joy Lawson wrote in the Huffington Post recently. “But the pay gap still exists, and it’s big: women earn an average of 77 cents on a man’s dollar.” April 17 has been designated Equal Pay Day: Supposedly that’s how long women have to work to catch up to men’s pay from the previous year. U.S. Presi
Aug. 15, 2012
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The end of welfare-to-work? No evidence it will be gutted
Republicans complain that the Obama administration is moving to gut the highly popular 1996 federal law that put strict time limits on welfare payments and required recipients to find work. Mitt Romney, on the stump and in a new TV ad, says this is more evidence that the White House is promoting a “culture of dependency.”“That is wrong,” Romney said in Elk Grove Village, Ill., this week. “If I am president, I will put work back in welfare.”What launched all this talk was a July 12 directive from
Aug. 15, 2012
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The tragedy of commons is wealth polarization
The tragedy of the commons is how Francis Fukuyama describes the infeasibility of Utopia in his new book, “The Origins of Political Order.” When Garrett Hardin used the phrase as a title for his article in 1968, he actually talked about the dilemma: When everybody owns something, nobody owns it.We Chinese have a similar saying to describe almost the same thing: A monk fetches water in buckets hanging from a bamboo pole on his shoulder; when he is joined by another monk, he shares the burden with
Aug. 15, 2012
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An $8.5 billion IPO looks like the next Facebook
Japan Airlines Co. owes me something as it plans an $8.5 billion initial public offering: a thank you. Not because I’m a frequent flier, but a Japan taxpayer. In the euphoria over the carrier emerging from bankruptcy, aren’t we forgetting the jumbo-jet-sized role of the state? A $4.5 billion government-orchestrated bailout and even bigger subsidies that let it avoid billions of dollars in future tax payments. So next month, when JAL attempts the most ambitious IPO since Facebook Inc., it should
Aug. 15, 2012