Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Seoul says Fu Bao loan 'not going to happen'
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Meghan Daum] Memed, and proud of it
Say what you will about the latest Internet video sensation ― in which someone lampoons one group of humans or another based on certain conversational proclivities ― but if nothing else, we can credit it with bringing mainstream awareness to the word “meme.” That’s the term coined by Richard Dawkins for the way evolutionary principles can be used to explain how cultural ideas take hold. It’s now basically turned into a fancy way of talking about things that are popular on the Internet. This incl
Feb. 9, 2012
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School nutrition: A kid’s right to choose
Last fall, Los Angeles took a hard line on school nutrition. In an attempt to mold better eating habits in kids, the Los Angeles Unified School District eliminated flavored milk, chicken nuggets and other longtime childhood favorites. But instead of making kids healthier, the changes sent students fleeing from school cafeterias. There have been reports of a thriving trade in black-market junk food, of pizzas delivered to side doors and of family-size bags of chips being brought from home. Garbag
Feb. 9, 2012
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Who reviews the U.S. ‘kill list’ of terrorists?
When it comes to national security, Michael V. Hayden is no shrinking violet. As CIA director, he ran the Bush administration’s program of warrantless wiretaps against suspected terrorists.But the retired air force general admits to being a little squeamish about the Obama administration’s expanding use of pilotless drones to kill suspected terrorists around the world ― including, occasionally, U.S. citizens.“Right now, there isn’t a government on the planet that agrees with our legal rationale
Feb. 9, 2012
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Saga shows problems with spectrum policy
There are two lessons to be gleaned from the revelation that Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC lost 47 percent in its main hedge fund last year. The first is that Falcone took a mighty gamble in investing $3 billion in LightSquared, a Virginia-based broadband-service supplier. The second, more important point is to shed light on how poorly the U.S. government manages the domestic broadcast spectrum. LightSquared controls 59 megahertz on the U.S. spectrum that it hopes to lease to w
Feb. 8, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Government’s role in U.S. economy
President Obama believes government has a vital role in creating good jobs in America. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich say American business will create good jobs here if their taxes are lowered and regulations eased.The facts are on the president’s side. U.S. corporations are increasingly global, with less and less stake in America. According to the Commerce Department, American-based global corporations added 2.4 million workers abroad in first decade of 21st century while cutting their American
Feb. 8, 2012
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Team Obama shows dangerous penchant for hubris
President Barack Obama is headed for political turbulence. That prediction isn’t based on any private polling data or inside information. It’s just common sense: National political campaigns are cyclical, and after an especially good cycle, the Democratic president is due for some downtime. On re-election prospects, the Obamaites are confident when they look at the state of the race, especially the Republicans. They’re showing signs of cockiness. Like many politicians, Obama courts trouble when
Feb. 8, 2012
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Right-to-work laws won’t bring back manufacturing
For most policy problems, there is usually a simple answer and a correct answer; they are rarely the same thing. That dilemma is evident in the debate about what the U.S. can do to boost its manufacturing sector. One side was staked out by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address. Building on the success of his rescue of the auto industry, the president set forth a multipronged approach toward a broader reinvigoration of manufacturing. His proposal includes closing tax loopholes
Feb. 8, 2012
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[Michael Boskin] The 2012 poll to be a referendum on Obama
STANFORD ― Successful political candidates try to implement the proposals on which they ran. In the United States, President Barack Obama and the Democrats, controlling the House of Representatives and (a filibuster-proof) Senate, had the power to do virtually anything they wanted in 2009 ― and so they did.Obama and his congressional allies enacted an $800 billion “stimulus” bill that was loaded with programs geared to key Democratic constituencies, such as environmentalists and public employees
Feb. 8, 2012
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Will any part of Europe save itself?
The Fitch Ratings agency has downgraded the credit of another five European countries ― Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain ― citing “the financing risks faced by eurozone sovereign governments in the absence of a credible financial firewall against contagion and self-fulfilling liquidity crises.”In other words, these self-styled fiscal medics plunged headfirst into deadly disease without making sure they had all their shots. Is every European country that tries to find a clean end by wh
Feb. 7, 2012
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Drug problem adding to challenge in Afghanistan
France can’t seem to decide how quickly it will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan after a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire on unarmed French soldiers, killing four and wounding 15.Over the last week, French officials have offered conflicting reports of their intentions. But the truth is, it doesn’t really matter whether they stay or they go. Despite the gung-ho statements we are now hearing from the NATO training program, most Afghan soldiers are simply unfit for duty.In every nation, the arm
Feb. 7, 2012
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SMEs and welfare: How much can we afford?
If the election of Park Won-soon as Seoul’s mayor last October is any indication, the upcoming April parliamentary elections will turn on matters of social welfare, inequality and the degree to which Koreans are willing to accept the vagaries of a market economy which, while it may increase the latter, is necessary in order to finance the former. This debate could scarcely come at a more important time for Korea, as it faces an aging and declining population, a slowing economic growth rate and r
Feb. 7, 2012
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[Lee Jae-min] General elections going global
Election atmosphere is in full bloom in Korea. Political parties are gearing up for the April 11 general elections with all sorts of things including changing party names, handing out political version of pink slips to incumbents and recruiting attractive new faces.Systemwise, this year’s elections will see one big change: Koreans living overseas are participating in the election virtually for the first time. This change is the reflection of a noble cause to implement a true form representative
Feb. 7, 2012
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Negative consequences of open college admissions
The demand for seats in colleges and universities continues to grow across the globe. Parents and their offspring see tertiary education as the path to greater economic, personal and social opportunities that follow receipt of a degree. With the exception of institutions topping the league tables, the many of colleges and universities earnestly struggle to provide seats to meet this increasing demand. More students are served and not incidentally more revenue is earned. Tertiary education has a
Feb. 6, 2012
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[Naomi Wolf] An Iraqi film hero in America
NEW YORK ― One of Iraq’s only working filmmakers, Oday Rasheed ― whose brilliant film “2005 Underexposure” followed a group of characters in Baghdad after the United States-led invasion in 2003, and whose new film “Qarantina” is now premiering ―is in Manhattan. The glamorous settings in which he is now showing “Qarantina” ― a screening at the Museum of Modern Art, for example, and in the private homes of American directors and stars ―could not be further removed from the violence-riddled context
Feb. 6, 2012
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Bad governance behind Japan’s bribery problems
The OECD has just issued a scathing report on Japan’s efforts to fight bribery and corruption. This is striking in many respects ― most notably the stark contrast with the recent glowing report for Korea.The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention is perhaps the OECD’s crowning achievement. It establishes legally binding standards to criminalize bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and provides for a host of related measures that make this effective. It is the first an
Feb. 6, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Is Israel preparing to attack Iran?
BRUSSELS ― Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran militarily over the next few months. Panetta believes there is strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June ― before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israe
Feb. 6, 2012
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Pursuing sustainable humanity
ADDIS ABABA ― Sustainable development means achieving economic growth that is widely shared and that protects the earth’s vital resources. Our current global economy, however, is not sustainable, with more than one billion people left behind by economic progress and the earth’s environment suffering terrible damage from human activity. Sustainable development requires mobilizing new technologies that are guided by shared social values.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has rightly declared susta
Feb. 6, 2012
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On China, Trump brings out the worst in Romney
On most economic issues ― notably the source of his personal fortune ― Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seems to believe in the most extreme form of let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may capitalism. An exception is China. Last week, accepting the endorsement of Sinophobe Donald Trump, Romney declared that “on my first day in office,” he will slap tariffs on any Chinese goods that arrive on American shores through “unfair trade practices” that “have cost American jobs.” He openly threate
Feb. 6, 2012
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Making college education more affordable for students
President Obama is right to put more pressure on colleges and universities as well as the states to make a college education more affordable.A nation that keeps telling its children they need more than a high school diploma to succeed in this increasingly high-tech world shouldn’t make it so hard for them to pay for college.Obama wants to boost the Perkins federal loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion and change the formula for how the money is distributed. Colleges that fail to reduce cost
Feb. 6, 2012
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commentary-Joel Brinkley
Drug problem adding to challenge in AfghanistanBy Joel Brinkley France can‘t seem to decide how quickly it will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan after a rogue Afghan soldier opened fire on unarmed French soldiers, killing four and wounding 15.Over the last week, French officials have offered conflicting reports of their intentions. But the truth is, it doesn’t really matter whether they stay or they go. Despite the gung-ho statements we are now hearing from the NATO training program, most Af
Feb. 6, 2012