Most Popular
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Jimin of BTS, actor Song Da-eun suspected to be dating, again
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What's next for the government's push in quota hike?
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Trump may like to 'solve' N. Korean nuclear problem if reelected: ex-official
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Woman falls to death from acquaintance's home after exhibiting ‘unexplained' behaviors
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N. Korea slams planned S. Korea-US military drills, warns of 'catastrophic aftermath'
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‘Malice should not undermine the system, social order,’ says Hybe's Bang
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N. Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: JCS
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[Robert J. Fouser] Social attitudes toward language proficiency
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[Graphic News] How much do Korean adults read?
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Korean firms target EV charging market in US
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[William Pesek] Time for difficult conversation
To many Koreans, Chung Hong-won has done exactly one thing right since the tragic sinking of the ferry Sewol cost hundreds of passengers, most of them high-schoolers, their lives. On Sunday morning, South Korea’s prime minister ― the No. 2 official in the government ― resigned.Ignore the histrionics from opposition lawmakers, who immediately demanded that Chung remain at his post and see through the recovery effort, which has been hampered by bad weather and strong currents. The government’s ini
April 28, 2014
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Obama’s receding foreign policy dreams
President Barack Obama envisioned building a foreign-policy legacy in his second term: a nuclear deal with sanction-strapped Iran, an end to U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas, and a successful pivot to Asia, including a trans-Pacific trade pact.Fifteen months after his second inaugural, those goals look more problematic, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have created new crises. Dashed foreign-policy dreams aren’t unique to this second-term president: Dwight D. Eisenho
April 28, 2014
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The worst empires are those of the mind
U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Asia raises questions within Asia on where Asia is going and how Asia should engage and embrace the West.No understanding of globalization and its impact on Asia can be complete without tracing it to the remarkable period in the 19th century, when the West used the power of the Industrial Revolution and science and technology to carve up the rest of the world into different colonies. In a remarkable book by Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, the tale of Asia’s in
April 28, 2014
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[Jeffrey Frankel] Oligarchy fallacy in achieving enlightened policies
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts ― Income inequality has received a lot of attention lately, particularly in two arenas where it previously received little: American public debate and the International Monetary Fund. A major reason is concern in the United States that income inequality has returned to Gilded Age extremes; but inequality has increased in many other parts of the world as well, and remains high in Latin America. What have we learned so far? Perhaps what is most interesting about the curren
April 28, 2014
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NFL cheerleaders don’t do it for money
I’ve watched all eight seasons of “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team,” and I’m still trying to figure out why those women do it. The dancing part looks like the sort of thing I would have enjoyed, if I had ever been the sort of person who could do a jump-split-kick without pulling, tearing or spraining something. On the other hand, the microscopic scrutiny of social media accounts, the hysteria over even an ounce of weight gain, the hours of exhausting (unpaid) athletic practice … tha
April 28, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Iraq’s never-ending war
AMMAN, Jordan ― Iraq appears to be slipping back into civil war, and Sheik Zaydan Aljabiri, one of the political leaders of the Sunni insurgent group known as the Tribal Revolutionaries, seems confident that his side is winning.“We are three kilometers from Baghdad airport! We are 20 kilometers from the Green Zone!” Zaydan proclaims in an interview here. Dressed in a princely gold robe and red kaffiyeh, he conveys the tribal authority of one of the leading sheiks of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s
April 27, 2014
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The cold reality of global warming
Big screen “Noah,” the box office hit, presents the biblical story of near apocalypse and indifference to God’s warnings. Small screen NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, regularly warns of impending man-made environmental doom on its climate.gov website.Whether one is more susceptible to religious parables or scientific findings, the very real effects of contemporary climate change are happening at a stunning pace.If melting ice caps and shifting weather patterns are not eno
April 27, 2014
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[Yu Kun-ha] Obama urges Japan to recognize past honestly
Last week U.S. President Barack Obama visited Tokyo and Seoul, the first two legs of his ongoing tour of Asia, which is intended to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to the region. His itinerary also includes Malaysia and the Philippines. In Tokyo, Obama gave a big boost to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by unequivocally pledging to protect the Senkaku islands against China. At a joint news conference after the summit, Obama said, “Let me reiterate that our treaty commitment to Japan’s securi
April 27, 2014
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Russia’s Ukraine action creates Israeli dilemma
TEL AVIV ― As if relations between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government and U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration were not strained enough, Israel has refused to join the United States and its other allies in condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea. But that decision, though risky, is not altogether surprising: The U.S., after all, lacks an effective policy toward Russia’s presence in the Middle East, making it difficult for countries like Israel to stand up to the Krem
April 27, 2014
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France’s dissonance quartet
PARIS ― Mozart’s “Dissonance Quartet” is arguably one of the most beautiful pieces of chamber music ever written. The title, linked to its highly unusual first movement, describes perfectly the far less beautiful state of French politics today.A quartet of figures currently dominate France’s political stage: two on the left, Francois Hollande and Manuel Valls; and two on the right, Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Juppe. It is an understatement to say that contrary to the prerequisites of chamber music
April 27, 2014
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[Brahma Chellaney] Wake-up calls for Asian allies
NEW DELHI ― The deteriorating situation in Ukraine and rising tensions between Russia and the United States threaten to bury U.S. President Barack Obama’s floundering “pivot” toward Asia ― the world’s most vibrant (but also possibly its most combustible) continent. Obama’s forthcoming tour of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines will do little to rescue the pivot or put his regional foreign policy on a sound footing. In fact, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is just the latest reason
April 25, 2014
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Obama’s Keystone delay an American nuisance
PARIS ― The day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met for Ukraine crisis de-escalation talks in Geneva with his Russian and European counterparts in an attempt to stabilize the country, Kerry’s department released a statement that undermined America’s own economic and national security ― again.Disrupting Russia’s traditional interests in Ukraine should be nowhere near as important a priority as completing the Keystone XL pipeline in order to cement America’s energy independence and its gl
April 25, 2014
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[Robert Reich] Antitrust laws in Gilded Age
We’re in a new Gilded Age of wealth and power similar to the first Gilded Age, when the nation’s antitrust laws were enacted. Those laws should prevent or bust up concentrations of economic power that not only harm consumers but also undermine our democracy ― such as Comcast’s pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable.In 1890, when Republican Sen. John Sherman of Ohio urged his congressional colleagues to act against the centralized industrial powers that threatened America, he didn’t distinguish
April 24, 2014
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Hedge fund guy amplifies Hong Kong crisis
In a decidedly odd twist of fate, Hong Kong’s version of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement has just been thrown a lifeline by a bunch of bankers, whose wealth the movement is meant to abhor. That strange fact alone should give leaders in Beijing pause. This week, in an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, former hedge-fund manager Edward Chin and 70 other signatories called for “genuine” universal suffrage for the former British colony. That’s what China promised to deliver within 20 yea
April 24, 2014
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Abe’s Yasukuni offering strains regional ties
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put already frosty ties with China and South Korea under further strain yesterday by sending a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine.Though Abe refrained from visiting the shrine personally, his gesture looked set to complicate a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, who has been trying to soothe tension between Seoul and Tokyo, two of Washington’s key allies in East Asia.Reflecting tense Sino-Japanese ties, a Shanghai court on Saturday order
April 24, 2014
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[Ravi Velloor] India elections: The times are a-changing
Last week, I spent two evenings with Naseeruddin Shah, India’s most refined actor.With Singapore businessman George Abraham on guitar, and joined by our wives, we drank, sang Bob Dylan songs and talked about India’s changing social fabric, how the country was morphing in not-always pleasant ways and of our sons who were House mates at a boarding school in Dehradun, northern India.The following evening, we watched as Naseer, directed by his wife and actress Ratna Pathak Shah, held a sellout crowd
April 24, 2014
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Toward an official anthem for our planet
The celebration of Earth Hour on March 29 this year by over 7,000 cities across the world as well as the celebration of Equinox Earth Day on March 20 and Earth Day on April 22 by Earth Day Network are some of the landmark events that make us aware of our responsibilities toward our planet.Other events such as World Environment Day on June 5, World Forestry Day on March 21, World Water Day on March 22 are celebrated with enthusiasm across the world by the schools, colleges, ministries, national a
April 24, 2014
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[Margaret Carlson] Hillary as grandma, candidate
There are few happier events than becoming a grandmother, and almost none that says quite so loudly “over the hill.”Even before the announcement that Chelsea Clinton was pregnant, Republicans were in love with the notion of Hillary Clinton being too old to be president ― she would take office at age 69. Karl Rove said his party should make the argument that “we’re at the end of her generation.” On Friday, the Drudge Report put up the banner headline “Grandma Hillary.” This followed a spate of ar
April 23, 2014
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Putin’s perilous course and future of Russia
NEW YORK ― The dangers of the crisis in Ukraine cannot be exaggerated. Russian President Vladimir Putin is overtly and covertly inciting separatism in eastern Ukraine, and has declared Russia’s unilateral right to intervene there, in complete contravention of international law. Russia’s provocative policies are putting it on a collision course with the West. Putin explained his point of view in a recent television appearance: Russia’s current international borders are provisional, determined by
April 23, 2014
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Don’t buy the hype on Alibaba’s IPO
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s coming initial public offering is being heralded as a victory for Wall Street, which appears to have lured the Chinese e-commerce giant away from a Hong Kong listing. In fact, the real winner may be Silicon Valley.If you buy the conventional wisdom, this is China’s big Internet moment. What’s likely to be the second-biggest IPO ever, after Facebook Inc.’s, supposedly signals the beginning of the end for America’s technological dominance. Soon the millions of young an
April 23, 2014