Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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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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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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Over 60% of S. Koreans support W100m childbirth incentive: survey
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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‘Inside Out 2’ adds four new emotions, explores teenage life
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Questions raised over fair promotion of RM, NewJeans
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School debate shows deep divisions in Israel
A fight in Israel over a new university is a perfect metaphor illustrating the nation’s deep divisions ― a fault line that further isolates Israel and presents a continuing danger to the world.This month, an Israeli education council for the occupied West Bank declared a community college in a Jewish settlement to be a full-fledged university ― prompting several hundred Israeli college professors, including some of the state’s most renowned academics, to write an angry letter to the state’s educ
Feb. 23, 2012
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[Jeffrey Frankel] Could economic turnaround be Obama’s recovery?
CAMBRIDGE ― With November’s election in the United States fast approaching, the Republican candidates seeking to challenge President Barack Obama claim that his policies have done nothing to support recovery from the recession that he inherited in January 2009. If anything, they claim, his fiscal stimulus, the bank bailouts, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s aggressive monetary policy made matters worse.Obama’s Democratic defenders counter that his policies staved off a second Gre
Feb. 23, 2012
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Virginia shoots itself in the foot on handguns
Virginia is for lovers -- of guns. Last week that state‘s Senate, newly under Republican control after a GOP election surge in November, overturned a 20-year-old law that barred residents from buying more than one handgun a month. Why? Apparently because in Virginia, deadly firearms are like Lay’s potato chips -- you can‘t stop at just one.Virginia’s refusal to close the notorious “gun-show loophole” has long been criticized by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who frets that relatively tough re
Feb. 23, 2012
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School debate shows deep divisions in Israel
A fight in Israel over a new university is a perfect metaphor illustrating the nation‘s deep divisions -- a fault line that further isolates Israel and presents a continuing danger to the world.This month, an Israeli education council for the occupied West Bank declared a community college in a Jewish settlement to be a full-fledged university -- prompting several hundred Israeli college professors, including some of the state’s most renowned academics, to write an angry letter to the state‘s ed
Feb. 23, 2012
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Good terrorism and bad terrorism
Malcolm X said, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, that “the chickens have come home to roost,” by which he meant that the violence of American interventionist foreign policy had come back to haunt the country.The exposure of a possible Iranian bomb-making cell in Thailand, and the coordinated attacks against Israeli targets in India and Georgia, remind us of the truth behind Malcom X’s remark. It may be no accident that the attacks occurred only days after U.S. officials conf
Feb. 23, 2012
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Harvard Liberal-Arts Failure Is Wall Street Gain
In recent years, many top universities have tried to guide their students into careers other than finance. In 2008, Drew Gilpin Faust, the president of Harvard University, went so far as to give a speech to graduating seniors asking them to stand fast against Wall Street’s “all but irresistible recruiting juggernaut.” Tufts University is paying the student loans of graduates who go into public service. The efforts seem to be failing. In December, the New York Times’ Catherine Rampell asked Harva
Feb. 23, 2012
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Obama’s Recovery?
With November’s election in the United States fast approaching, the Republican candidates seeking to challenge President Barack Obama claim that his policies have done nothing to support recovery from the recession that he inherited in January 2009. If anything, they claim, his fiscal stimulus, the bank bailouts, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s aggressive monetary policy made matters worse.Obama’s Democratic defenders counter that his policies staved off a second Great Depressio
Feb. 23, 2012
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In Iraq, occupation by another name
Two recent reports appearing on the same day last week in The New York Times and The Washington Post illustrate U.S. intentions in Iraq. What they reveal is that despite the heralded “end” of U.S. participation in the war there, U.S. policy continues to depend on our security apparatus to influence Iraq, at the expense of Iraqis‘ sovereignty and dignity.The Times report informed us that the U.S. State Department decided to cut the U.S. embassy staff by 50 percent from its current 16,000 personne
Feb. 23, 2012
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The Iranian Nuclear Threat Goes Global
The current drive to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal reflects two important, and interrelated, changes. From Israel’s perspective, these changes are to be welcomed, though its government must remain cautious about the country’s own role.The first change is the escalation of efforts by the United States and its Western allies to abort the Iranian regime’s nuclear quest. This was instigated in part by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s finding in November 2011 that Iran is ind
Feb. 23, 2012
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Ways to revitalize Korean football
Korean football has been in a state of complacency for at least 10 years. Numerous examples of deceit and chicanery in Korean football have been unveiled recently. Korean football has neglected to develop infrastructure in communities and the K-league. Also, K-league players have been found to very frequently partake of match-fixing and illegal gambling. Moreover, the Korean Football Association has acted in ways that are entirely inscrutable to the general public. For instance, it recently repl
Feb. 23, 2012
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Why Obama enjoys adulation among blacks
In his new book, “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency,” Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy offers up the most sober (and sobering) assessment of Barack Obama’s grappling with race to date. The book looks at the big media events such as the controversy around Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod. But it is arguably at its most trenchant where it is most humble.An example of this occurs ea
Feb. 22, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Playing billionaire election game
How many billionaires does it take to buy a presidential election? We’re about to find out. The 2012 campaign is likely to be a battle between one group of millionaires and billionaires supporting President Obama and another group supporting his GOP rival.Perhaps this was the inevitable result of the Supreme Court’s grotesque decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010, which opened the floodgates to unrestricted campaign money through so-called “super PACs.” But I’m not s
Feb. 22, 2012
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Greece risks suffering same fate as Argentina
NEWPORT BEACH ― Let me set the scene: an increasingly discredited economic policy approach gives rise to growing domestic social and political opposition, street protests and violence, disagreements among official creditors, and mounting concerns among private creditors about a disorderly default. In the midst of all of this, national leaders commit to more of the same harsh austerity measures that they have been unable to implement for two years. Official creditors express skepticism, in privat
Feb. 22, 2012
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[Nouriel Roubini] The four downside risks to global economic growth
RIO DE JANEIRO ― Since late last year, a series of positive developments has boosted investor confidence and led to a sharp rally in risky assets, starting with global equities and commodities. Macroeconomic data from the United States improved; blue-chip companies in advanced economies remained highly profitable; China and emerging markets slowed only moderately; and the risk of a disorderly default and/or exit by some members of the eurozone declined.Moreover, under its new president, Mario Dr
Feb. 22, 2012
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Facebook and China have too much in common to ‘like’
Mark Zuckerberg is pulling off a feat bigger than becoming the world’s richest 20-something: thriving in the cyber age even before “friending” the most populous nation and biggest Internet market. Facebook Inc.’s founder will soon have to “like” China, where his website is banned. A post-initial-public-offering Facebook will have shareholders demanding that it tap China’s 1.3 billion people, and now. Such is life when your business model is predicated on ever-growing ranks of users updating, sha
Feb. 22, 2012
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A new agenda for European economic growth
BRUSSELS ― Austerity alone cannot solve Europe’s economic and financial crisis. Growth and jobs need to be promoted with equal zeal. European Union leaders now recognize this: kick-starting growth in 2012 was high on the agenda at the European Council’s meeting on January 30. But the big question remains: How?The need for immediate action is clear. The eurozone’s economy contracted in the last three months of 2011; even Germany’s shrank. The new year is looking grim. France is flat-lining (as is
Feb. 21, 2012
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[Lee Jae-min] ETS tax laudable but misplaced
The global aviation industry is still scratching its head while digesting the contents of the latest bid by Brussels to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Starting from Jan. 1, the EU included the aviation industry in its CO2 Emission Trading System and started imposing extra taxes on airliners. Actual payments will not take place until 2013, but the system is now up and running. A very laudable effort indeed, but here is the trick: This program of the EU applies to all foreign airlines as well, if
Feb. 21, 2012
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Asia’s development and importance of leadership
Asia’s development has been so successful that it has been labeled a “miracle.” However, if this is true for economic growth, the picture looks far less impressive if you look at other dimensions of economic development. A return of leadership is needed. Looking at Asia’s phenomenal economic growth figures since the second half of the 20th century, it becomes easy to understand why international observers have used the word “miracle.” From 1975 to 2000 East Asia grew faster than any other region
Feb. 21, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] The charm of living in Korea
Twenty-eight years ago when I was at the L.A. airport waiting for a plane to Seoul, I watched on television clashes between riot police and the tear-gassed students of South Korea, who were protesting against the military dictatorship. I was embarrassed and reluctant to go back to Korea, even though I was returning home after six years in the States. Upon arriving at Gimpo Airport, I was taken aback by the unfriendliness and arrogance of the immigration and customs officers, who treated internat
Feb. 21, 2012
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Laudable but Misplaced: EU’s Aviation ETS Tax
The global aviation industry is still scratching its head while digesting the contents of the latest bid by Brussels to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Starting from Jan. 1, the EU included the aviation industry in its CO2 Emission Trading System and started imposing extra taxes on airliners. Actual payments will not take place until 2013, but the system is now up and running. A very laudable effort indeed, but here is the trick: This program of the EU applies to all foreign airlines as well, if
Feb. 21, 2012