Most Popular
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Medical profs at top hospitals suspend surgeries, clinics
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Samsung chip business back on track, logs W1.9tr operating profit in Q1
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Shinsegae faces showdown with investors over SSG.com's delayed IPO
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Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal
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Ex-pro baseball player who killed debtor appeals sentence
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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[David Ignatius] Steps needed to defuse a crisis
WASHINGTON ― As the United States and Iran move closer toward open confrontation, it’s important that both take quiet steps to avoid the miscalculations and misunderstandings that can lead to an inadvertent military conflict. It’s been done before: During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, President Kennedy used a back channel to communicate American resolve to the Soviets, and also explore a formula for settlement. The key points of contact were his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and
Jan. 15, 2012
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[Meghan Daum] Santorum and the mythic power of the zealots
If you think Rick Santorum is a weird, pious wackadoo, try being a female walking around certain ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Israel with your ankles showing.Santorum’s near-victory in the recent Iowa caucuses raised the volume on some of his more paranoid kvetchings about the moral breakdown of society ― gay marriage being a slippery slope to marrying your pet, “Christendom” being under attack, birth control being “not OK” even for married couples. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem ― where I was two w
Jan. 15, 2012
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Keep the pressure on Assad to stop Syrian violence
Speaking from what he apparently considers a position of strength, Syrian President Bashar Assad this week condemned the “terrorists,” “traitors” and “outsiders” he said were leading the 10-month-old uprising against him and threatened to strike his enemies with an “iron fist.” Preventing such an offensive by the regime, which has complied only fitfully with a demand by the Arab League that it restrain itself, will be difficult. But the Arab League and the United Nations can and must do more to
Jan. 15, 2012
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Pentagon fires at budget targets that can’t be hit
At some point in every negotiation over fiscal policy, once the high-minded speeches and other pleasantries have been delivered, the disagreeable details poison the atmosphere. Everyone is in favor of tax and entitlement reform, after all, until they see the specifics. The reaction to the cost-cutting strategy that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed last week suggests this is about to happen with regard to Pentagon spending. Let me be very clear: Substantial efficiencies can and should be w
Jan. 15, 2012
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[Joel Brinkley] Venezuela’s embarrassing leader
Hugo Chavez, the peacock president of Venezuela, called President Obama a “clown” a few weeks ago, and “an embarrassment.” My suggestion, President Chavez: If you want to find an embarrassing clown, look in the mirror.Did Obama have a model of himself crafted into a wise man, standing next to Joseph in a downtown Caracas nativity scene, peering into the baby Jesus’s manger?Did Obama send a florid note to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin congratulating him on his “great victory” in parliamen
Jan. 15, 2012
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Noda must pursue diplomacy that will enhance nation’s presence
It has been pointed out for years that Japan’s diplomatic standing is deteriorating, a condition likened to “ground subsidence.” With the prime minister being changed annually for six years in a row, international awareness of this country’s existence has further declined.Last year, we received heartwarming help from all over the world after the country suffered the disastrous Great East Japan Earthquake. This international bond made us recognize afresh the importance of diplomacy.This year, Jap
Jan. 13, 2012
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Let Musharraf stand in court of public opinion
That Pervez Musharraf’s rally in Karachi on Sunday wasn’t much of a success goes without saying. Television showed the reality, and flags and buntings failed to hide the lack of popular enthusiasm. Coming after Imran Khan’s much larger rally last month, the small crowd must have been embarrassing for the former president-general. But this was his first Karachi rally, so let us wait for more such episodes of “enlightened moderation.” Addressing the people from Dubai via telephone, the former pres
Jan. 13, 2012
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A well-timed visit by President Lee Myung-bak
The ongoing visit to China by the president of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak, has come at an important time. In a few months, the two countries will mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and they have designated this year one of friendly exchanges. Flourishing trade and people-to-people exchanges have been the most impressive areas of Sino-ROK cooperation. The Sino-ROK trade volume now exceeds the ROK’s trade volume with the United States and Japan combine
Jan. 13, 2012
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[Brahma Chellaney] Asia’s new tripartite entente
NEW DELHI ― The launch of trilateral strategic consultations among the United States, India, and Japan, and their decision to hold joint naval exercises this year, signals efforts to form an entente among the Asia-Pacific region’s three leading democracies. These efforts ― in the world’s most economically dynamic region, where the specter of a power imbalance looms large ― also have been underscored by the Obama administration’s new strategic guidance for the Pentagon. The new strategy calls for
Jan. 13, 2012
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Verdict on Anwar takes both sides by surprise
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim arrived at the Jalan Duta High Court Monday morning convinced he was going to be found guilty of committing sodomy.Two hours later, he left the court cleared of the charge of sodomizing his former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan.The judgment left both sides of the political divide stunned as the two opposing sides had been equally convinced that Anwar would be pronounced guilty.The Pakatan Rakyat side could hardly believe their ears after years of slamming the
Jan. 13, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Getting the Taliban to the table
WASHINGTON ― For some real-life intrigue at the start of this new year, take a look at the secret diplomacy that’s under way between the U.S. and the Taliban. Most observers are skeptical the process will produce any breakthroughs, but it’s interesting that the talks are taking place at all. The path toward negotiations was charted publicly last Feb. 18, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out a framework for a political settlement of the Afghanistan War. Though it wasn’t widely noticed
Jan. 13, 2012
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Obama turns attention to where the money is
Of all the realizations Barack Obama has made in three years in the White House, this may be the most crucial: The U.S. is a Pacific nation. Odd as it sounds, the U.S. spent the past decade forgetting a fact that’s obvious from consulting a map or tracking container ships. When George W. Bush’s administration bothered with Asia, it was all terrorism all the time. Quite odd, considering how reliant the largest economy became on Asia’s money during his tenure. The region became America’s banker. O
Jan. 12, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Why 2012 will be Obama-Clinton vs. Romney-Rubio
My political prediction for 2012: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton versus Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio.Joe Biden has been a good and energetic vice president, but Obama will need to stir the passions of the Democratic base and Biden won’t suffice. (Biden will swap places with Clinton, becoming secretary of state ― a position he’s apparently coveted for years.)A highly disciplined and unified Republican opposition has taken a toll. While the president delivered health care, it’s not as bold as man
Jan. 12, 2012
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No heroes in the fight over a consumer czar
President Barack Obama has established that he’s done with Congress for the rest of his term. Feeling chumped after Republicans wouldn’t reach agreement with him on a broad deficit-reduction agreement, Obama has decided it’s time to campaign against GOP leadership of the House and Senate.Thus the dubious move to ignore the law and appoint a head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without the consent of the Senate.We can’t really blame Obama. Republicans have been playing gotcha with
Jan. 11, 2012
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[Lee Byong-chul] South Korea’s political springtime
SEOUL ― The ascension to power of the pudgy 29-year-old Kim Jong-un in North Korea has grabbed headlines around the world, but the most important story involving Korean young people and politics is taking place in the South. There, young voters are becoming angrier, more politically active, and increasingly hostile to the old established parties. This demographic challenge to South Korea’s status quo suggests a “liberal” awakening that could completely alter the country’s political landscape.The
Jan. 11, 2012
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Obama’s modest proposal on defense budget
As he unveiled his administration’s new blueprint for U.S. defense strategy last week, President Obama sought to vaccinate himself against charges that he was gutting the nation’s military.Even after the strategy is fully implemented, he said, “the defense budget will still be larger than it was at the end of the Bush administration.”So it seemed a little odd when, an hour later, the second-ranking official in Obama’s Pentagon presented what sounded like a rebuttal.“You have, over the next four
Jan. 11, 2012
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Putin stymies protesters with subversion strategies
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s reaction to Moscow protesters perfectly illustrates how the former Soviet spy chief can masterfully leverage classic subversion strategies typically found in espionage to undermine the opposition and even ridicule the concept of democracy.In the wake of the Russian parliamentary vote in early December, a Russian opposition leader far more radically communist than Putin was jailed, and protesters hit the streets to protest what they considered electoral fra
Jan. 11, 2012
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The Turkish-Iranian partition of the Middle East
During the last decade many right-wing American and Israeli analysts have described the geo-strategic struggles unfolding in the Middle East as a new “Cold War” pitting the United States against Shiite Iran. They have warned of an Arab “Shiite Crescent” ― stretching from Lebanon to Iraq ― connected to Iran via ties of religion, commerce and geostrategy.The new year has started with an attempted Shiite power play by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to dominate the Iraqi government, and an Iranian d
Jan. 11, 2012
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How Wall Street turned a crisis into a cartel
Almost 65 years ago, in 1947, the U.S. government sued 17 leading Wall Street investment banks, charging them with effectively colluding in violation of antitrust laws. In its complaint ― which was front-page news at the time ― the Justice Department alleged that these firms had created “an integrated, overall conspiracy and combination” starting in 1915 “and in continuous operation thereafter, by which” they developed a system “to eliminate competition and monopolize ‘the cream of the business’
Jan. 10, 2012
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[Lee Jae-min] Bleak job prospects for law grads
Last week must have been a torturous one for 1,698 students graduating from the new law schools in February. These students are the first batch of graduates from the 25 law schools nationwide, and they took the first bar exam over a five-day period last week. The students and their law schools spent all of 2011 preparing for the exam. As the passing rate is set at 75 percent of the total graduates, most of them will get the bar license they have pursued for the past three years at law school.A m
Jan. 10, 2012