Most Popular
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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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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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Naver will consider company benefits in deciding on selling Line shares: CEO
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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Building a bicycle culture in Bangkok
Though a record number of bicycles took to the streets last Saturday, there’s a long way to go before Bangkok joins the ranks of cyclist-friendly cities. The turnout on Car-free Day was impressive, but it will make no difference as long as policymakers remain lukewarm to two-wheeled travel. With improved facilities and safety, bicycles could be a far more popular means of transport. And greater popularity would help reduce pollution, traffic gridlock and energy consumption. The benefits are obvi
Sept. 25, 2014
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Nepal’s shame-laden educational certificates
That over 10,000 students failed to pass a single subject in School Leaving Certificate exams this year is an utter disgrace to our education system. Even a hardened critic bumbles for words at this revelation made on Sunday in front of the parliamentary subcommittee on education. That children struggle in maths, science and English was no news. That public schools have failed communities, despite relatively decent remunerations for their teachers and millions spent in teacher trainings and in f
Sept. 25, 2014
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Putting guns in schools is reason to recoil
America has always been awash in bad ideas. The Founding Fathers spoke a good game about liberty but allowed America to become a slave republic, because they didn’t want to alienate the Southern farmers and merchants who helped bankroll and fight the war for independence against the British.The Southern states wanted access to American liberty based on skin color. They got their wish for disproportionate representation in the early republic with the three-fifths clause enshrined in the U.S. Cons
Sept. 24, 2014
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[David Ignatius] A war strategy develops
WASHINGTON ― The symbolism Tuesday was appropriate for a nation at war: A somber president in a plain blue suit describing military strikes in Syria the night before, an American flag fixed in his lapel while a Marine Corps helicopter waited behind him. President Barack Obama’s message was dry as bone: The United States has gone into battle again, in yet another Muslim country, to attack the menace of violent extremism. This time, at least, the president could announce that U.S. military action
Sept. 24, 2014
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[Noah Feldman] Obama doesn’t want your approval for war
The Barack Obama administration has offered no credible legal authorization for a war against Islamic State, and Congress plainly will not provide one. What’s going on here, asks the shade of James Madison? Has the U.S. completely lost the part of the Constitution that imagines Congress and thus the people as a check on the president’s war powers? And if so, does it matter?We can dispense quickly with the justifications that the administration has proffered in a piecemeal and somewhat embarrasse
Sept. 24, 2014
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The visual politics of atrocity and terror
NEW YORK ― The British artist Damien Hirst once referred to the 2001 attack on New York’s World Trade Center as “kind of an artwork in its own right. It was wicked, but it was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised visually.” Now, 13 years later, Western governments, while able to describe in strategic terms the threat of the Islamic State to the Middle East, are still struggling to come to terms with its visual assault in the global media.Like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida,
Sept. 24, 2014
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Weapons for Ukraine will aid democracy
When Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko addressed a joint session of Congress last week, he called on members to support Ukrainian freedom and democracy. They stood and cheered.Ukrainians must “live free or die,” the president said, using a slogan from the American Revolution to describe his struggle with “rebels” who have taken over the eastern regions of his country. In reality, these separatists are Russian proxies, whom the Kremlin armed and organized in an effort to drag Kiev back into Mosc
Sept. 24, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] Another look at Scottish vote
All around the world, eyes were on Scotland last week. Last Thursday’s referendum rejected the proposition that Scotland become an independent state. To many of us here, the fact that one province of a state held an independence referendum is itself remarkable. Indeed, this is democracy at its best. What further interests us is how business entities, both local and multinational, attempted to and did affect the regional referendum. As what was once considered to be an utterly unlikely event was
Sept. 23, 2014
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More safeguards won’t make U.S. president safer
Apparently some lunatic with a knife and an arms cache jumped the White House fence and managed to get all the way to the front door before they caught him. And apparently some other lunatic ― this one in the Secret Service ― has proposed establishing checkpoints in the public areas around the White House in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.For those of you who are not familiar with the geography of Washington, it’s probably worth mentioning that the White House is smack
Sept. 23, 2014
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China’s measured embrace of India
BEIJING ― Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to India, the main leg of a recent tour of Central and South Asia, sheds new light on China’s emerging approach to its neighbors, particularly Asia’s other giant. Recent subtle changes in Sino-Indian relations could prove to be enormously consequential for the world in the coming decades.Under Xi, China is adopting a new grand strategy which can be called “dual rebalancing”: implementing bold domestic reforms to regain economic momentum wh
Sept. 23, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] The shallowness of our times
Are human beings better than animals? Professor emeritus Yu Jong-ho replies with an emphatic “No!” to that question. He poignantly points out that human beings are the only species that pretends to concede defeat while waiting for the right moment to strike at the victor. Only human beings slaughter their enemies even after they have surrendered. “Animals never do that,” remarks professor Yu. “The fight ends when a dog or a cat yields by displaying its vulnerable belly to the enemy.”Indeed, we h
Sept. 23, 2014
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Turkey’s complicated position on Islamic State
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the release of 46 citizens held hostage by Islamic State has freed him to cooperate more substantially with the U.S.-led coalition to destroy the group. It might not be that straightforward.Although the U.S.’s strategy on Islamic State is complicated ― it is attempting to crush the group, while also trying to force a nuclear deal on one of the group’s two most powerful regional opponents (Iran) and topple the second (Syrian President Bashar al-Ass
Sept. 23, 2014
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[Stephen L. Carter] Bring back Department of War
Not content with fighting over whether to call the war on Islamic State a war, and whether to call Islamic State the enemy, we are now arguing whether to call Islamic State Islamic State.Ah, the words of war. War has never brought out the best in the language. This administration, like its predecessor, is prosecuting its war that isn’t a war under the authority of a declaration of war that isn’t a declaration of war but an “Authorization for the Use of Military Force.” (In keeping with this dubi
Sept. 22, 2014
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To fight Ebola, create health workforce reserve force
A recent projection of the West Africa Ebola outbreak is that it now may take 12 to 18 months to control and will infect 100,000 people. President Barack Obama announced the deployment of 3,000 military troops, more than a hundred Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel and millions of dollars to help stem the tide.How did the outbreak get so out of control?The answer is partly rooted in where Ebola struck. Health systems in the post-conflict states where it hit first and hardest we
Sept. 22, 2014
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[Clive Crook] Scotland’s vote settles nothing on U.K.’s future
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is a happy man right now. If he’d lost the union through sheer carelessness, which looked possible last week, history would have been unforgiving. Had the Scots voted for independence, the poor man would have ranked for all time, beyond hope of redemption, below Neville Chamberlain in the gallery of Great British Failures. Congratulations, sir: Your reputation is damaged but retrievable.It’s too soon to say that the U.K. has cause to be happy.One good thing: The
Sept. 22, 2014
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[Cho Kyu-hyung] Korean businessmen’s network going global
China’s gross national product reached $8.227 trillion in 2013. As it was half that of the U.S., this shows the Chinese economy soared to became the world’s second-largest. The global economy forecasts China will overtake the U.S. economy in 10 years. China’s rapid economic growth is largely attributable to not only its cheaper labor force but also aggressive investments from overseas Chinese around the world. The number of Chinese living abroad is estimated at about 57 million. With the ethnic
Sept. 22, 2014
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Putin’s antimodern empire
Seventy-five years ago, on Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and began what would become the bloodiest war in human history, World War II. Throughout the 1930s, the nature of the Nazi regime and its intentions were quite obvious. Yet the major European powers, which could have prevented the war, were preoccupied with narrow national concerns and continued playing geopolitical games.It is a frightening perspective that one day the same thing might be said about 2014, the time when Russia
Sept. 22, 2014
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[David Ignatius] U.S. underestimates IS fighters
WASHINGTON ― The U.S. has made the same mistake in evaluating fighters from the Islamic State that it did in Vietnam ― by underestimating the enemy’s will, according to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence. Clapper’s comments came in a telephone interview Wednesday, in which he summarized the elements of a new “National Intelligence Strategy” released this week. Clapper also agreed to answer some broader questions about intelligence issues confronting the country. Asked whether t
Sept. 21, 2014
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The problem of Piketty’s missing rentiers
Most reviews of Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” have already been written since its startling rise to the top of bestseller lists in April. But I thought it wise to read the volume in its entirety before offering my thoughts. It has taken me five months, but I have finally finished it.One thing that the book has in common with Karl Marx’s Capital is that it serves as a rallying point for those concerned about inequality, regardless of whether they understand or agree
Sept. 21, 2014
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China’s ODA diplomacy
Over the last decade, China has become an important player in the global aid scene. Because of its growing economy and its increasing influence as a regional and global player, China has gained much attention worldwide. Significantly, the volume of official development assistance (ODA) from China is rising. China has been increasing its outward flow of aid at a remarkable rate. On July 10, 2014, China released its second white paper on foreign aid following its first paper in 2011. According to
Sept. 21, 2014