Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Healthy optimism for Taiwan government, skepticism on China
With the DPP’s rout of the KMT in the local elections still sinking in and people digesting the reasons behind the unequivocal bashing handed out to the ruling party, the clock has begun counting till the time when the newly elected officials will have to turn in results on their campaign promises.For example, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s promise to transform Kaohsiung into a low-pollution, high-value industry city. She touted underground sewage pipeline coverage increasing from 38 percent to 52 p
Dec. 4, 2014
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Raise bar for migrants
The new Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri has said he will thoroughly evaluate the certification process of aspiring migrant workers as a crucial step in reducing risks as much as possible for the millions of Indonesians working overseas. The plan is welcome as risks loom at every step for those seeking work abroad, especially in sectors considered to require “low skills.” Every now and then, reports emerge of workers being misled or abused at the stage of recruitment, training, deploymen
Dec. 4, 2014
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Solution for Philippines’ congested capital
Various studies have chronicled the rapid growth of Metro Manila, a product of the long economic boom that lured factories, corporations and migrants to the metropolis like a magnet. Today, however, this expansion has triggered a far worse problem: congestion.It is not hard to imagine how a heavily congested metropolis can trigger a host of problems, the monstrous daily traffic and the high pollution level being the most visible. With a population of about 12 million, Metro Manila accounts for 1
Dec. 4, 2014
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Did North Korea hack Sony?
Hard to believe, but Sony executives and U.S. spies suspect that the huge hack that has taken Sony Pictures’ office offline for more than a week was the handiwork of North Koreans as retaliation for a yet-unreleased comedy produced by the studio. This, too, could be the plot of a comic blockbuster, albeit one with a serious message: Hacking skills are a great equalizer.It’s true that North Korea has gotten pretty worked up about “The Interview,” of which only a trailer is now available. It has e
Dec. 3, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Paranoia as a weapon
WASHINGTON ― The worm of paranoia begins to eat into even the hardest adversary. An example is a Twitter post last week displaying an Islamic State leaflet offering a $5,000 reward for information about “crusaders’ agents” in the ranks. Maybe Western spies are secretly burrowing into the Islamic State right now. But then, maybe the leaflet is a fake, intended to induce the fighters to doubt their comrades. The point is that the jihadists can’t know. Either way, the worm turns. The leaflet got me
Dec. 3, 2014
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Framework for resolving Japan-China islands dispute
How to make sense of the dispute between Japan and China over some half a dozen uninhabited islets in the East China Sea known as the Diaoyu to the Chinese and the Senkaku to the Japanese?With a combined area of just a couple of square kilometers, and no permanent human use of any of the islands in recent decades, it is hard to see how the islands could nearly bring the two Asian nations to blows. But from a broad perspective, these rocks are laden with tremendous symbolic and historical signifi
Dec. 3, 2014
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[Trudy Rubin] A symbol of cooperation for women’s rights
At a time when most foreign news is unremittingly grim, I have a good-news story to tell ― about the first women-only restaurant in western Afghanistan, called the Scranton Restaurant.That name reflects the fact that the restaurant is a joint project of a noted woman activist in Herat, Afghanistan, and her counterparts in Scranton, Pennsylvania, who raised $20,000 to get the restaurant started. The Scranton Restaurant is a rare place where Afghan women, young and old, can socialize outside their
Dec. 3, 2014
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Race ― something to talk about
Let’s talk about race. We know it’s going to be awkward, no matter how well-intentioned. We know it makes both blacks and whites uncomfortable. We know that it’s fraught with 238 years of history, most of it a sad, sorry legacy of aggression, domination and persecution by whites against a people who ― it must never be forgotten ― originally were brought to the new country to be put in bondage and servitude.Not much of a welcome. Emancipation was declared in 1863, but it wasn’t accompanied by any
Dec. 3, 2014
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Corruption abroad threatens U.S. security
When the militants of Islamic State swept across Iraq last June, they numbered no more than 12,000 and they faced a U.S.-trained, U.S.-equipped Iraqi army that boasted some 200,000 troops.And yet it was the Iraqi army that collapsed.What happened? It was more than simply incompetence among Iraqi generals and ethnic tensions among the ranks. The hidden factor that gave Islamic State its victory was Iraq’s rampant corruption. The Baghdad government’s army had 200,000 troops on paper, but many were
Dec. 2, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] Hazings, abuses in the military
There is a Korean joke. Over dinner gatherings, what kinds of stories are hated the most by female colleagues and companions? The top three in reverse order are: stories of soccer, stories of military service and, most of all, stories of soccer games played in the military. Military experiences are deeply engraved in the psyche of ordinary Korean men and everyone gets emotional when the subject is raised. No wonder military service has become a touchy issue in the confirmation hearings of nomine
Dec. 2, 2014
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The U.K.’s immigration distraction
LONDON ― Do British voters hate foreigners, or merely freeloaders? That is essentially the question British Prime Minister David Cameron posed in his long-awaited speech on immigration from other European Union countries, delivered last month at the headquarters of the construction-equipment manufacturer JCB.Cameron’s gamble is that voters do not mind Poles or Lithuanians operating JCB’s machines on construction sites all over the United Kingdom. What they mind is people immigrating to the U.K.
Dec. 2, 2014
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Why is the FBI still targeting Petraeus?
By all outward appearances, David Petraeus appears to be mounting a comeback. The former general landed a job at powerhouse private-equity firm KKR, has academic perches at Harvard and the University of Southern California and, according to White House sources, was even asked by the President Barack Obama‘s administration for advice on the fight against Islamic State. Yet it turns out that the extramarital affair that forced him to resign as director of the Central Intelligence Agency is still h
Dec. 2, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] We should honor business codes
Unlike well-known mercantile countries such as the U.K., the U.S. or the Netherlands, Korea did not become interested in business or trade until recently. Living in a Confucian society that emphasized morality and courtesy, the Korean people regarded business transactions and monetary bargains as indecent activities and despised them. It was only natural, therefore, that there were few stores on the Korean Peninsula until the late 20th century. Pre-modern Korea only had traveling street markets,
Dec. 2, 2014
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[Albert R. Hunt] U.S. constitutional convention
Rising frustration with Washington and conservative electoral victories across much of the U.S. are feeding a movement in favor of something America hasn’t done in 227 years: Hold a convention to rewrite the Constitution.Although it’s still not likely to be successful, the effort is more serious than before: Already, more than two dozen states have called for a convention. There are two ways to change or amend the founding document. The usual method is for an adjustment to win approval from two-
Dec. 1, 2014
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How to keep future cold wars cold
At a time when we are reflecting on the lessons from the Cold War amid growing concern about the current U.S.-Russia relationship, we should be looking ahead to anticipate how changes in technology and geopolitics create new challenges to peace and stability among the world’s major powers.The Cold War stayed cold in good measure because the United States and the Soviet Union possessed nuclear weapons that raised the risk of an armed conflict between them to an unacceptable level. The destructive
Dec. 1, 2014
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[Trudy Rubin] Iraqi helpers of Americans now need help
In Thanksgiving weekend columns past, I’ve written of my gratitude to this country for taking in my immigrant grandparents, and my belief that immigration makes this country great.This year I’m thinking about a special group of would-be immigrants ― a group whom the United States should be welcoming with thanks, but is instead treating shamefully. I’m referring to thousands of Iraqis who helped American soldiers and civilians during the last decade, for which they’ve been threatened with death b
Dec. 1, 2014
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Ferguson a lesson lost on race
By John Kass, Tribune Content AgencyOf all the wild talk coming out of Ferguson and the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer ― and all that angry and predictable noise emanating from race hustlers like Al Sharpton ― there are two things I just can’t shake.One involves Louis Head, Brown’s stepfather. Head had been standing before a crowd in Ferguson on Monday night, comforting his wife, Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, who was weeping as news broke that there
Dec. 1, 2014
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ECB should fire up its helicopters
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and his colleagues are ready to do whatever it takes to rescue Europe’s economy from deflation. This must be true because they keep on saying it. They’ve been ready now for as long as anybody can remember ― yet inflation in Europe stays dangerously low and very little ever seems to happen.Last week, a senior ECB official said the central bank will wait until the beginning of next year before deciding whether to start buying government debt ― that is,
Dec. 1, 2014
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[Ian Goldin] Dealing with globalization
The last few decades of globalization and innovation have resulted in the most rapid progress that the world has ever known. Poverty has been reduced. Life expectancy has increased. Wealth has been created at a scale that our ancestors could not have imagined. But the news is not all good. In fact, the achievements brought about by globalization are now under threat.The world has simultaneously benefited from globalization and failed to manage the inherent complications resulting from the increa
Nov. 30, 2014
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Getting to yes with Putin on Ukraine
PARIS ― In the showdown with Russia over Ukraine, the weaknesses and divisions in European policy have been as encouraging for Russian President Vladimir Putin as America’s hesitant approach to Syria was. If Europe is to act responsibly, three key concepts should define its policy toward Russia: firmness, clarity, and a willingness to find an acceptable compromise.Without firmness, nothing is possible. To be sure, Europe and the U.S. made mistakes in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Nov. 30, 2014