Most Popular
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Seoul vows action over Naver's Line, Yahoo dispute
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[KH Explains] Hyundai Motor’s plan for new landmark keeps hitting bumps
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Key S. Korean, USFK special operations officials to hold rare meeting amid NK threats
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Samsung doubles down on Vietnam
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[Grace Kao] American racism against Stray Kids
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In Beijing, S. Korean top diplomat aims to jumpstart ties with China
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NewJeans' members' parents complained to Hybe, email shows
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Suspect behind murder of Korean tourist in Pattaya arrested
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Prosecutors summon pastor involved in Dior bag scandal
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[Graphic News] Over 80% of people filing bankruptcy in Seoul in their 50s and older
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Torture report message: Let Pakistan handle it
Senate Democrats this week issued a declassified report stating that the harsh interrogations the Central Intelligence Agency once claimed saved American lives failed to produce unique and valuable intelligence. But Senate Democrats also assert that third-world interrogations of al-Qaida operatives often did produce such vital intelligence.The report, written by the majority staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, cites six instances in which Pakistani authorities, in particular, obtained le
Dec. 15, 2014
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[Robert Zaretsky] IS reminds France of WWII
The Islamic State video showing the executions of 18 captured Syrian soldiers along with American aid worker Peter Kassig shocked the world for the usual reasons and one more as well. The militants did not wear masks. Two who appeared in the video, Michael Dos Santos and Maxime Hauchard, are French citizens. Their unmasking allowed the French to put faces to two of the more than 1,000 of their countrymen estimated to have given themselves to Islamic State and its terrifying worldview.These parti
Dec. 14, 2014
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[Michael Hiltzik] Suspicions keep Huawei out of U.S. market
SHANGHAI ― In mid-November, the giant Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei invited networking executives from some of the more than 170 countries where it does business for a two-day Global Mobile Broadband Forum. The potential buyers wandered among display tables bathed in a ghostly blue light as corporate associates talked up the products. They represented about 400 companies. None was American.That illustrates the challenge facing this technology company with a global reach but no detectabl
Dec. 14, 2014
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Universities need more conservatives
The leftists are coming, the leftists are coming. No, wait. I am wrong. They are already here, not least of all in our universities where they coexist with postmodernists but very few conservatives. Phooey on diversity, they say, and then they do other things, extreme things like having students learn and recite the following pledge of allegiance.“I pledge allegiance to wrap myself in the flag of the United States against anything un-American and to the Republicans for which it stands, two natio
Dec. 14, 2014
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World economy is far from fixed
Global markets shuddered yesterday as China and Greece reminded investors that the world economy remains fragile. It was a timely warning: Growing optimism about the U.S. recovery mustn’t be allowed to obscure the danger.In different ways, China and Europe pose the biggest risks. In China’s case, the hazards are mostly unavoidable and just have to be endured. In Europe, there’s no such excuse. Better policy ― rather, any policy ― would lessen the peril.The Chinese authorities are striving to con
Dec. 14, 2014
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Islamic State won’t wring its hands over torture
The Islamic State doesn’t appear ready to follow our lead, so don’t expect it to release its report on the morality of severing American heads any time soon.Though they call themselves a state, they’re actually a mob of terrorists in Iraq and Syria. And when they’re not severing the heads of Westerners and Syrian soldiers and putting the hideous acts on video, they’re raping women or shooting Christians and others and pushing them into ditches.But apparently they don’t feel guilt, not the way Am
Dec. 14, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Another intelligence failure
WASHINGTON ― The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture was immensely valuable. But it should have addressed Congress’ own failure to oversee these activities more effectively. By giving lawmakers a pass, Sen. Dianne Feinstein weakened the very process of accountability her report was meant to enhance. Feinstein was brave in resisting pressure to squelch her report, and she did the country a service. But with its thousands of pages, her investigation had one glaring w
Dec. 12, 2014
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Wall Street’s Democrats pulling their punches
In Washington’s coming budget battles, sacred cows like the tax deductions for home mortgage interest and charitable donations are likely to be on the table along with potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare.But no one on Capitol Hill believes Wall Street’s beloved carried-interest tax loophole will be touched.Don’t blame the newly elected Republican Congress.Democrats didn’t repeal the loophole when they ran both houses of Congress from January 2009 to January 2011. And the reason they d
Dec. 12, 2014
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[Chon Shi-yong] Koreans’ love for rumors
The ongoing scandal surrounding the leak of a Blue House internal report on a former aide to President Park Geun-hye is revealing one of the dark aspects of this society ― its love for rumors. The love for rumors and gossip is so pervasive that even a police officer assigned to the presidential secretariat wrote a report based on what had been circulating in a secretive collection of information, most of which is unconfirmed, and rumors called “jjirashi.”The author, Park Kwan-cheon, said he wrot
Dec. 11, 2014
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Is America headed for a Soviet-style collapse?
PARIS ― Hey, did you see U.S. President Barack Obama yukking it up on “The Colbert Report” this week, reminding Americans how much fun he’d be to have a beer with to help forget all the challenges being fumbled by his administration? Sorry to be such a killjoy, but according to the International Monetary Fund, China just quietly overtook the United States as the world’s largest economy ― an honor the U.S. had held since 1872, when it bested Britain. Better make that beer a strong one.In 1983, Yu
Dec. 11, 2014
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[Martin Khor] Time for renewed battle on climate change
It’s that time of year again when the United Nations gathers 192 countries and thousands of people to discuss actions to tackle climate change.This year’s climate conference is in Lima, the capital of Peru. The country is home to 51 indigenous peoples who comprise 45 percent of the population of 30 million.At the time of the Spanish invasion around 1500, the Incas were dominant in the Andes, and they had a sophisticated civilisation with cities, temples and buildings in the mountains that are a
Dec. 11, 2014
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Wrangling over charter could prolong Thai junta rule
The case of “too many cooks spoil the broth” is about to apply to the junta-sponsored constitution drafters.The chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, Borwornsak Uwanno, compared the proposals for the project to cooking kaeng som (hot and sour soup). The more proposals were proposed, the better choices the drafters had.Ideally, it is good to have several proposals for the next constitution ― if those ideas come from and represent all folk living in this country.Unfortunately, they do n
Dec. 11, 2014
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Taiwan must tackle China issue to ink FTAs with others
In an effort to further liberalize the Korean Free Economic Zones, the South Korean government recently held Business Day 2014 from Dec. 3 to Dec. 5. The aim of the event was to attract foreign investment for South Korea’s eight FEZs. This came in the wake of a free trade agreement inked on Nov. 10 between South Korea and mainland China.Taiwan has long regarded South Korea as its main trade rival, as up to 70 percent of the two countries’ exports overlap. The developments recently made by South
Dec. 11, 2014
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[David Ignatius] An honest public accounting
WASHINGTON ― A CIA medical officer who was assigned to monitor the interrogation of an al-Qaida operative named Abu Zubaida sent a message to his superiors on Aug. 4, 2002, the day the CIA first used the technique known as “waterboarding.” He hauntingly titled his cable: “So it begins.”“Longest time with the cloth over his face so far has been 17 seconds. This is sure to increase shortly. NO useful information so far. ... I’m head(ing) back for another water board session.”And so dawned a nightm
Dec. 10, 2014
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Interim nuclear agreement with Iran
Some of the world’s leading diplomats including Secretary of State John F. Kerry worked right up until their self-imposed deadline of Nov. 24 trying to reach agreement with Iran on limits to that country’s nuclear program.But when the latest round of talks was over, they couldn’t point to much in the way of progress. That is, unless you count Iran’s willingness to continue observing an interim agreement that has traded modest reductions in Tehran’s nuclear stockpile for equally modest reductions
Dec. 10, 2014
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Governments should hold firm in ransom dilemma
PRINCETON ― Anyone who does not share the ideology of the so-called “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria is likely to agree that it is wrong for the group’s adherents to behead some of those they have held hostage. Much more controversial, however, are the secret decisions by European governments to pay such groups ransoms for the release of their nationals.Although the Islamic State’s hostages have come from several countries, so far it has beheaded only those from the United States and the United
Dec. 10, 2014
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Tourists shouldn’t cancel African safaris over misplaced Ebola fear
Unlike the United States, not one of the following countries has had a single case of Ebola this year: South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia. If that’s surprising news, it shouldn’t be. None of these countries is near the heart of the outbreak in West Africa. In fact, Sierra Leone’s capital of Freeport, one of the cities hardest hit by the disease, is closer to Paris than it is to Johannesburg.So why are so many people canceling travel plans to Africa’s safari belt?Ebola is a frigh
Dec. 10, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Things we want President Park to do
It’s already the second week of December and the 50th week of 2014. The year of the Sewol ferry tragedy is waning, leaving in its wake the bottomless sorrows of the families, classmates and teachers of the 304 dead. But the nation is not in quiet condolence, passing the final weeks of a depressing year in a nasty political controversy. Some dubbed it “the memogate” or “chirashigate” as it arose over a few pages of internal documents prepared in and leaked from the Blue House, allegedly based on
Dec. 10, 2014
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[Robert J. Fouser] Emigrating for English
During five weeks of living in the Korean community near Flushing area of New York City, I often wondered why the Korean residents gave up their life in Korea for a new life in the U.S. Many of the Koreans work long hours running small businesses. New York City is a wonderland for tourists, but for residents it is an expensive, crowded place just like Seoul. Over time, I began to ask Koreans what brought them to the U.S., and the answer was surprising similar: education. When I asked what was so
Dec. 9, 2014
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Thirty years on, Bhopal still cries out for answers
The march of time can be cruel. As months and years go by it erodes even the most horrifying events until they are dulled of their searing poignancy.Even one of the worst industrial disasters of our time fades from the world’s consciousness after decades have gone by. Thirty years ago, on the night of Dec. 2, 1984, the city of Bhopal, India, was forever identified with catastrophic tragedy. A toxic gas leak from a Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) plant in the center of the city claimed the lives
Dec. 9, 2014