Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Govt. asks hospitals to mitigate impact of medical professors' absence
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[Meghan Daum] Who can comment on motherhood?
In my recent column, I weighed in on the latest round in the “mommy wars”: the firestorm ignited when Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen accused Ann Romney of “never working a day in her life”; a statement President Obama then condemned, saying, “There is no tougher job tougher than being a mom.”By way of exploring the ways in which Americans are obsessed with and define themselves according to circumscribed notions of work, I submitted that maybe it was time to let go of the idea that motherhood tr
May 3, 2012
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[Charles Tannock] Russia’s alpha-dog leader returns
BRUSSELS ― Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin as Russia’s president was always a foregone conclusion. But, when he is sworn in on May 7, he will retake formal charge of a country whose politics ― even Putin’s own political future ― has turned unpredictable.Putin’s return to the presidency, following a period of de facto control as prime minister, was supposed to signify a reassuring continuation of “business as usual” ― a strong, orderly state devoid of the potentially destabilizing effects
May 3, 2012
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Money equals power in corrupt China
Now it has turned out in China that not only power corrupts, but also money. And what if the two join hand in hand? The results are dramatic, tragic, and ruinous, as the cascading events in China show. For nearly three months since February, the world has been watching a drama with suspense and disbelief. Perhaps some sadness, too.What I am talking about is the purge of Bo Xilai, who until April 10 was a high-flying Politburo member and a contender for top leadership of the Chinese Communist Par
May 2, 2012
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[Howard Davies] Bringing it all back home in the wake of financial crisis
PARIS ― Global policymakers regularly congratulate themselves on having avoided the policy errors of the 1930s during the financial crisis that began in 2008. Led by U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, an economic historian of the Great Depression, they remembered the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and loosened monetary and fiscal policy to avoid the worst. We are still coping with the budgetary consequences, especially in Europe, but it is true that the world did not end in 2008.Mon
May 2, 2012
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Gingrich’s quest for glory ends as a punch line
Newt Gingrich never saw it ending this way. The former House speaker, who has long thought of himself as a historic figure, envisioned he would be the candidate of innovative “big ideas” and the agenda-setter for the 2012 U.S. election. This either would catapult him to the White House or ensure a consolation prize: a vice presidential nomination or secretary of State appointment in a Republican administration. In the worst case, he would be a genuine senior statesman in his party. Instead, as h
May 2, 2012
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Germany’s trade unions seeking higher pay could save the euro
At times of economic crisis, politicians like to blame investors, preferably foreign investors. Harold Wilson, the British prime minister in the 1960s, pointed the finger at bankers in Zurich. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia accused George Soros of undermining his country’s financial stability in the late 1990s. And in parts of Europe today, it is increasingly common to blame hedge funds, “locust”-like investors, or even credit-default swaps for the euro-area crisis. This is almost e
May 2, 2012
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[Park Sang-seek] What’s behind N. Korea’s survival?
The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine developed the Failed States Index and have measured the degree of failure of states by using 22 quantifiable indicators every year since 2005. North Korea is one of the 20 countries which have been on the list of failed states for the last seven years (2005-11). All these countries are dictatorial, very poor, have experienced civil wars, and all but Ethiopia are former colonies. Excepting North Korea, these former colonies have gone through violent
May 1, 2012
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Spoonful of zinc can save countless Third World kids
Addressing the health needs of the world’s most vulnerable people is often a costly and complicated undertaking. But on rare occasions, if the will is sufficient, it can be simple. So it is with the No. 2 cause of death among children in low-income countries: diarrhea. Weak health and poor nutrition can make these children especially susceptible to deadly dehydration. Among those less than 5 years old, 1.5 million die from the condition annually, mostly in Africa and South Asia. India, Nigeria a
May 1, 2012
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Arab springtime may redraw borders
JERUSALEM ― Two things stand out in the Middle East since the Arab Spring began ― one that happened, and one that did not. What happened was that for the first time in modern Arab history, authoritarian regimes and rulers were toppled, or seriously challenged, by popular demonstrations, not ― as in the past ― through military coups.But what did not happen might be as important as what did. While dictators associated with military juntas were challenged overnight, the Arab Spring never came to th
May 1, 2012
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U.S. Supreme Court should strike down Arizona’s law
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Initial reports indicated the justices weren’t buying the Obama administration’s arguments against a provision that requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they think are in the country illegally.We hope that’s not the case. We think that provision and others in the law need to be struck down, and we hope the court upholds the primacy of federal law and agencies in dealing w
May 1, 2012
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So long, Newt Gingrich
Never one to eat his words, Newt Gingrich is nonetheless being fed replay after replay of the famous ABC News clip in which he confidently declared, “I’m going to be the nominee.”That was Dec. 1. On Wednesday, the morning after Mitt Romney swept five presidential primaries, Gingrich’s campaign staff signaled that he would soon officially concede the obvious: Romney is the presumptive Republican presidential candidate.That Gingrich lasted this long is a testament to... what, exactly? Monomaniacal
May 1, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Progressives should abandon jingoism, xenophobia
It is quite puzzling that the progressives in South Korea are not progressive at all. In fact, many of them are stubbornly old-fashioned, and even hopelessly conservative. For example, most of them are invariably ultra-nationalists who oppose globalization, foreign cultures, and international cooperation mechanisms such as free trade agreements.They reject the very idea of living in the global village. They only think “our nation and our people” are important, and all others are trivial. Thus th
May 1, 2012
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How to make poor kids $1 million richer
Anyone with half a brain knows that bolstering the middle class is critical to securing the future of the U.S. It’s a matter of national self-interest. Setting aside the misery of poverty for a minute, the rich need a skilled middle-class workforce to make their businesses successful or they won’t stay rich for long. Skills, of course, require education, which is why it’s nutty that Republican House members want to cut Pell grants and are making unreasonable demands in the debate over preventing
April 30, 2012
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[Robert B. Reich] Being ‘on right track’ isn’t enough
Dear Mr. President:So far your election strategy can best be summed up as: “We’re on the right track, my economic policies are working, we still have a long way to go, but stick with me and you’ll be fine.”I’m afraid this won’t be enough to win you the election. The recovery is too anemic, and the chance of an economic stall between now and Election Day far too high.Even now, Mitt Romney’s empty “I’ll do it better” refrain is attracting as many voters as your “we’re on the right track.” Each of
April 30, 2012
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How U.S. students can work off their debt
If your child is one of the 1.5 million high school students eagerly awaiting acceptance letters from colleges this month, he or she is probably entertaining dreams of high scholarship, intellectual ferment, new friends, raging keggers. You probably have a few other things on your mind. For starters, you may be thinking that the average annual cost of a four-year institution now exceeds $20,000. Or that outstanding student-loan debt surpasses $1 trillion. Or that defaults are rising, economic gr
April 30, 2012
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Western translations distort China’s reality
A lot of people search endlessly for the secret key or a magic formula that would enable them to understand China. Naturally, at some point they will want to know how the Chinese are educated. The Middle Kingdom has many prestigious schools, but let us take a closer look at Peking University, the mother lode of the Chinese “wenming.”Wenming is often translated as “civilization,” but that is misleading. In a recent lecture at Peking University, the renowned linguist Gu Zhengkun explained that “we
April 30, 2012
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[Hans-Werner Sinn] Capital flight from Spain, Italy, France in full swing
MUNICH ― For a while, it looked as if the European Central Bank’s 1 trillion euro credit program to pump liquidity into Europe’s banking system had calmed global financial markets. But now interest rates for Italian and Spanish government bonds are on the rise again, closing in on about 6 percent.Of course, this may not be the breaking point beyond which the debt burden becomes unsustainable. After all, interest rates in Southern Europe were well above 10 percent in the decade before the euro wa
April 30, 2012
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How to Make Poor Kids $1 Million Richer
Anyone with half a brain knows that bolstering the middle class is critical to securing the future of the U.S. It’s a matter of national self-interest. Setting aside the misery of poverty for a minute, the rich need a skilled middle-class workforce to make their businesses successful or they won’t stay rich for long. Skills, of course, require education, which is why it’s nutty that Republican House members want to cut Pell grants and are making unreasonable demands in the debate over preventing
April 30, 2012
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The truth about France’s ‘far-right’ surge
Are the French getting their Tea Party on? That’s what an outsider looking at the country’s first-round presidential voting results might have been led to believe. But, as with many things French, the reality is tres compliquee.The weekend vote knocked out all but the two candidates long expected to square off in the May 6 final: Socialist Francois Hollande (28.6 percent) and incumbent center-right President Nicolas Sarkozy (27.2 percent). This isn’t the story, though. The most striking news is
April 29, 2012
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[David Ignatius] EU’s gathering financial fracas
WASHINGTON ― With Socialist leader Francois Hollande likely to become the next president of France, Europe’s hot populist anger is about to confront the cold austerity measures required by the eurozone, with a predictable result: a storm that rattles the foundations of the European economic house. Financial traders and treasury ministers this week are debating just how much damage this political-economic collision will bring. Some argue that it could take down the structure entirely. Others insi
April 29, 2012