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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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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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Today’s K-pop] BTS pop-up event to come to Seoul
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Athens on the Potomac
President Barack Obama‘s budget proposal Monday all but seals the deal: Together, Washington Democrats and Republicans have stopped governing. Both parties now are on automatic pilot. They’ll do as little as possible to solve this nation‘s debt crisis before Nov. 6. Instead they’ll wait to see whether American voters firmly choose a direction for the United States and its destructive indebtedness.How destructive? Conveniently, one of this nation‘s plausible futures plays out vividly on a TV scre
Feb. 16, 2012
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The overlooked Reagan legacy: Decency
Every Republican presidential candidate claims to be the heir to Ronald Reagan‘s legacy. For years, Republican partisans have carried Reagan’s memory before them as the ancient Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant. Just invoking his name proved your ideological purity, and would smite the dreaded RINO (Republican in name only).Problem is, those who most fervently claim to adhere to Ronald Reagan‘s principles don’t seem to understand Reagan‘s greatest principle: decency.Ronald Reagan practi
Feb. 14, 2012
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How far the U.S., and democracy, has fallen in Egypt
Nothing better illustrates America‘s sliding status in today’s Arab world than Egypt‘s decision to try 16 Americans who work for pro-democracy groups there.On the surface, the strange story of this “criminal” case looks far less important than the Syrian government’s repression of its people. But this crisis has the potential to wreck U.S. relations with Egypt, a country that is still considered a key ally. And these charges graphically illustrate the decline of U.S. leverage in the new Middle E
Feb. 14, 2012
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Romney is dangerously naive on foreign policy
Mitt Romney appears to have all the foreign-policy savvy of someone who once visited Euro Disney, and it‘s freaking me out. Not to say that President Obama is any more knowledgeable on that front, but at least he seems aware of his limitations, outsourcing foreign leadership to the French, the Brits, Hillary Clinton and private contractors.Never has the world been so interconnected, with power and influence becoming decentralized and regionalized. America’s problems -- economic or otherwise -- c
Feb. 14, 2012
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Avoiding civil war in Syria
When China joined hands with Russia on Saturday to veto an Arab-European draft U.N. resolution backing an Arab League plan to promote a regime change in Syria, its stance was consistent with its approach to international issues. The draft resolution that sought to realize a regime change in Syria did not adequately reflect the state of affairs in this Middle East country. In putting the resolution to the vote, Western powers hoped to further exert pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to
Feb. 10, 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
Feb. 6, 2012
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[Yuriko Koike] China’s soft-power offensive in Taiwan
TOKYO ― China’s behavior during the recent presidential election in Taiwan demonstrates that its leaders have learned some lessons, if only the hard way. They have learned that China can have a greater impact on Taiwanese voters through trade and making people feel richer than by threats ― even threats to fire missiles ― which had been China’s electoral tactics in previous Taiwanese elections, particularly when a pro-independence candidate looked popular enough to win.Indeed, fearing the popular
Feb. 1, 2012
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Talks not likely to effect an honorable U.S. exit
Now that U.S. troops have left Iraq, the administration is seeking to negotiate an end to the Afghan war.So there was some excitement when an Afghan Taliban spokesman recently announced that the group would open a political office in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar, dropping its long-held objections to peace talks. This move comes after months of secret efforts by the Obama administration.Yet, anyone who believes that talks with the Taliban will lead to an honorable exit is deluding himself.I sympa
Jan. 16, 2012
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[Joel Brinkley] The Ralph Nader of Taiwan
Taiwan is holding presidential elections this week, and viewed from the United States it almost seems as if Ralph Nader has moved to the island.For Americans, the Taiwanese vote is not merely an interesting, distant piece of news. China remains fixated, even obsessed, with the island, determined to take it back one day. And while the United States is not obligated to fight on behalf of the Taiwanese, successive administrations for half a century have made it clear they would not tolerate a Chine
Jan. 12, 2012
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Nuclear arms charge against Iran is no slam dunk
The conflict between Iran and the West just keeps heating up, with the Iranians announcing over the weekend that they have begun to enrich uranium at a second major facility, a well-defended site outside the city of Qom. Given the high stakes, it’s valuable to take another look at the main source of the tension: Iran’s nuclear-weapons program. That this enterprise is active is widely considered a given in the U.S. In fact, the evidence, contained in a November report of the International Atomic
Jan. 12, 2012
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A tale of two Israeli cities
Last week, Israelis had one more reason to be proud of themselves ― one of their cities was singled out for a rare honor. The Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail selected the “most creative cities” of the world.Leaning on the Global Creativity Index, devised at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the newspaper looked at the three T’s (technology, talent and tolerance) that have made cities shine.The Globe and Mail even went a step further, in
Jan. 12, 2012
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Strait talk with Iran over vital sea route
Iran’s threat to close a vital international waterway if stricter sanctions are imposed on Iranian oil exports is more than just bellicose and provocative. It is also a test of U.S. will and commitment in the Persian Gulf at a time when our role in the region is changing.The world has grown used to chest-thumping by Tehran, and there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the exercises recently conducted by Iranian armed forces to demonstrate their ability to close the Strait of Hormuz. But h
Jan. 9, 2012
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[Dominique Moisi] A Russian Spring in the making?
PARIS ― Russia is not Egypt. And Moscow is not on the eve of revolution as Cairo was less than a year ago. Indeed, Russia’s powerful have at their disposal assets that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime lacked.As an energy superpower, Russia can open its coffers to appease, at least in part, the humiliation that it has inflicted on its citizens by falsifying the country’s recent legislative election results. And not all Russians are in the streets. We should beware of the “zoom eff
Jan. 5, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Republican crack-up bad for America
With the Iowa caucuses just days away, the Republican crack-up threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP’s eclipse in 1932. That’s bad for America.The crack-up isn’t just Romney-the-smooth versus Gingrich-the-bomb-thrower. Not just House Speaker John Boehner, who keeps making agreements he can’t keep, versus House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who keeps making trouble he can’t control. And not just the GOP establishment versus the tea partiers.The
Jan. 2, 2012
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[Brahma Chellaney] Japan, India as Asia’s natural-born allies
NEW DELHI ― At a time when China’s economic, diplomatic, and military rise casts the shadow of a power disequilibrium over Asia, the just-concluded visit of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to India cemented a fast-growing relationship between two natural allies. Now the task for Japan and India is to add concrete strategic content to their ties.Asia’s emerging balance of power will be determined principally by events in East Asia and the Indian Ocean. Japan and India thus have an importan
Jan. 1, 2012
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Flexible-spending-account absurdities
It’s that time of year again: mistletoe and carols, Santa and shopping ― and of course, health insurance madness.Health insurance in this country of ours is always madness. But it’s especially maddening this time of year. For instance, this is when you find out how large your premium increase will be, and how much less your insurance will cover than last year.Mercer, the human resources consulting firm, does an annual survey and projects that health benefit costs per employee will rise 5.7 perce
Dec. 11, 2011
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] What action can save the euro?
NEW YORK ― Just when it seemed that things couldn’t get worse, it appears that they have. Even some of the ostensibly “responsible” members of the eurozone are facing higher interest rates. Economists on both sides of the Atlantic are now discussing not just whether the euro will survive, but how to ensure that its demise causes the least turmoil possible.It is increasingly evident that Europe’s political leaders, for all their commitment to the euro’s survival, do not have a good grasp of what
Dec. 11, 2011
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Detained USAID worker poses Cuban conundrum
Two years ago, Cuban counterintelligence officers arrested Alan P. Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor, as he boarded a plane in Havana for the United States. Later convicted in a closed trial of crimes against the state for smuggling sophisticated telecommunications equipment into Cuba, Gross is serving a 15-year prison sentence.Obama administration officials have declared that relations with Cuba will remain frozen until Gross is released, but the administration ha
Dec. 11, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] Think first tweet later #duh
“Emma Sullivan just became the new Ferris Bueller.”That was the astute observation of a writer for Roll Call, one of countless panegyrics to the 18-year-old Kansan who refused to apologize to Gov. Sam Brownback for sending a not-very-nice tweet about him to her 60-some followers.The tweet in question, which Sullivan composed on Nov. 21 at a Youth in Government Program in Topeka, went as follows:“Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.”Of course,
Dec. 11, 2011
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A barbaric custom against women in Kyrgyzstan
On her final full day in office, President Roza Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan became the first senior Kyrgyz official to forcefully denounce “bride kidnapping,” an entrenched custom in her Central Asian state.“Bride kidnapping is a tradition of the Kyrgyz people,” she acknowledged as she was preparing to leave the presidential palace on Nov. 29. “But these crimes often force women to commit suicide.”Young men kidnap about 15,000 girls each year, Otunbayeva said. They simply grab a girl walking down t
Dec. 11, 2011