Concerns about the safety of the nuclear reactors in Korea are growing as problems arise in succession at the reactors of the Gori nuclear power plant near Busan. The Gori-1 reactor, the oldest in Korea, which started operation in 1978, shut down on April 12 after a fire destroyed one of its circuit breakers. At first, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. said a defective power switch caused the powe...

The Korean economy is sitting on a ticking time bomb ― household debt that has topped 800 trillion won. To figure out the risks that this huge debt bomb poses to the national economy, one has only to remember that one percentage point hike in interest rates would increase the interest payment burden on households by 8 trillion won a year. No wonder the Bank of Korea has been hesitant to raise the...

Some political candidates campaigned last fall with a promise to “Take Back Our Country” and urged states to follow Arizona’s lead in enacting state immigration laws that would fill the void left by a neglectful federal government. The fervor grew intense as they whipped up a lather of fear. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer talked about headless bodies being dumped near the border with Mexico (which she ...

The fighting in Libya has reached a stalemate: Moammar Gadhafi has proved far more resilient than his adversaries anticipated, and he has also exposed the limits of what can be accomplished by war from afar. If NATO decides to end the standoff by attacking his forces with greater ferocity, there’s only one nation (you guessed it) with the requisite power. This much is evident. What remains uncle...

The unhappy marriage of convenience between the United States and Pakistan survived another squabble last week. Pakistan threatened to halt CIA drone strikes against militants in its tribal areas, one of the only effective U.S. tools for hitting al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives based there. Pakistani officials then leaked their demand that Washington sharply reduce the number of CIA and special-f...

We all know that Democrats want to spend more on people and Republicans want to tax people less. But giving someone an extra dollar is no different than taking a dollar less from that person; raising spending is the same as cutting taxes, and cutting taxes is the same as raising spending. Gee, maybe Democrats are closet Republicans, and Republicans are closet Democrats. Of course some spending ...

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) ― Michel Martelly, a Haitian popular singer known by the stage name “Sweet Micky,” was officially declared the earthquake-devastated country’s next president, election officials said Wednesday. A spokesman for Haiti’s electoral commission, Pierre Thibault, said Martelly won the presidency with 67.57 percent of the vote, defeating rival candidate Mirlande Manigat. The announc...

European officials portray assistance as effort to fill rebels’ military gap PARIS (AP) ― Europe has moved closer to doing what it said it wouldn’t do in Libya ― directly jump into the bid to overthrow leader Moammar Gadhafi. France said Wednesday it has already sent military officers to work with Libyan rebels on the ground, in addition to stepping up airstrikes. Italy and Britain have said th...

Broadcaster SBS apologized for a series of glitches that occurred on Wednesday evening, saying its internal power supply had been temporarily out of order. “We apologize to viewers for not being able to air our programs smoothly at around 9:30 p.m. on April 20, which occurred due to a problem in the internal power supply,” the broadcaster said on its website. The broadcaster was airing “LifeMas...