Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[David Ignatius] The stakes of an Iranian deal
BEIRUT ― As Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt serves a sumptuous dinner to a gathering of Lebanese notables here, the talk around the table is about who will fill the power vacuum in the region if America reaches a nuclear deal with Iran ― and accelerates what’s seen as a U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East. That’s the kind of existential anxiety I encountered across the region recently, as negotiations between Iran and the “P5+1” group moved toward a climax. This is a deal that would alter the powe
Nov. 17, 2013
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Cheapskate China wins no friends in Philippines
As hundreds of thousands of Filipinos struggled to find food, water, shelter and the bodies of loved ones in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, China quickly dipped into its world-leading $3.7 trillion of currency reserves and came up with … all of $100,000.That was Beijing’s first miserly offer of aid to the storm-tossed Philippines. By Thursday, an international outcry over China’s stinginess shamed it into upping its pledge to a modest $1.6 million worth of relief materials such as tents and blanket
Nov. 17, 2013
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[Mohamed A. El-Erian] The uncertain future of Central Bank supremacy
NEWPORT BEACH ― History is full of people and institutions that rose to positions of supremacy only to come crashing down. In most cases, hubris ― a sense of invincibility fed by uncontested power ― was their undoing. In other cases, however, both the rise and the fall stemmed more from the unwarranted expectations of those around them.Over the last few years, the central banks of the largest advanced economies have assumed a quasi-dominant policymaking position. In 2008, they were called upon t
Nov. 17, 2013
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How people lie about gay sex and homophobia
Social theorists, above all Duke University’s Timur Kuran, have drawn attention to the phenomenon of “preference falsification.” The basic idea is that when people speak in public, they aren’t always truthful about their preferences. What they say is different from what they really think.In unfree societies, people may be too frightened to disclose their actual views in opinion surveys. But preference falsification can also afflict democracies, if social pressures lead people to misdescribe thei
Nov. 17, 2013
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Criminal sentencing in urgent need of reform
When both the nation’s top justice official ― Attorney General Eric Holder ― and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy say there is a problem with criminal sentencing, it is time to take notice. When Democrats and Republicans in a divided Congress agree that our nation’s system of federal sentencing laws is in dire need of reform, it is time to remedy chronic problems in criminal sentencing.Congress enacted federal mandatory minimum sentences beginning in the 1980s in an effort to mitigate what
Nov. 17, 2013
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The looming environmental crisis in Iran
The world is watching the ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. They began days after tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators screamed “Death to America!” as they remonstrated outside the former United States embassy in Tehran.That’s what the world knows of Iran ― its nuclear program, the resultant economic sanctions and the nation’s turbulent relations with the West. The Iranian government talks about little else. Neither does the Western news media.In the background, howe
Nov. 15, 2013
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[Robert B. Reich] Pragmatists and ideologues
The Washington Post called Chris Christie’s huge gubernatorial victory a “clear signal in favor of pragmatic, as opposed to ideological, governance.” But the mainstream media used a different adjective to describe Bill de Blasio, Election Day’s other landslide victor. The New York Times, for example, wrote of “the rise of the left-leaning Mr. de Blasio.”Again and again, Christie is being described as the pragmatist; De Blasio, as the lefty. But in light of America’s surging inequality, the label
Nov. 15, 2013
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[Peter Singer] The ethics of sugar production
PRINCETON, New Jersey ― Sugar is sweet, but the ethics of its production is anything but appealing. “Sugar Rush,” a recent report released by Oxfam International as part of its “Behind the Brands” campaign, has shown that our use of sugar implicates us in land grabs that violate the rights of some of the world’s poorest communities. Better-informed and more ethical consumers could change this.We are genetically programmed to like sweet things, and when people become more affluent, they consume m
Nov. 14, 2013
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Labeling GMOs may not make a difference
Most of us accept that we live in a world where food is no longer just grown, it is engineered. Even scarier, much of our food is bio-engineered and not grown, but bred.Given this reality, it is reasonable for a consumer to want to know something about the engineering, which produces foods that are known as GMOs, an acronym for products that contain genetically modified organisms.This is not an argument about GMOs, about whether they are safe for people or animals to ingest, whether they are env
Nov. 14, 2013
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[Tulsathit Taptim] Lessons for Thai government
Although 90 percent of democratic politics is about good timing and seizing the opportunities, sooner or later you will have to do the remaining 10 percent and nothing else. In other words, you can lie, pretend, manipulate, get a payback or “play” politics all you like, but keep in mind that genuine “conscience” has a place in politics, too. The time will always come when you can no longer point at something that is seriously wrong and tell the people that it is right.The Pheu Thai Party’s amnes
Nov. 14, 2013
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A new historic starting point for China
History and our experience over the past more than 30 years show that the key to achieving national rejuvenation, prosperity and the well-being of the people is to rely on reform and the continuous release of reform dividends. China’s reform has entered the “deep water area” and it will be a profound, complicated and arduous process never before seen in history. Economic restructuring, social transformation, administrative transition are dependent on major breakthroughs in reform, but these requ
Nov. 14, 2013
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Sobering lessons
Filipono President Aquino drew widespread flak when, in the immediate aftermath of supertyphoon “Yolanda,” he offered remarks that appeared to blame Tacloban City and its residents for unpreparedness. The assessment, while apparently meant to call the attention of the local government, and despite its unmistakable if clumsily expressed humanitarian point ― “Any casualty is an issue with me,” the president said ― was roundly criticized in the social media for its perceived callousness and insensi
Nov. 14, 2013
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False food labeling could harm brand reputation
The scandal involving the false labelling of food seems to be endless. It has spread from the hotel industry to restaurants and the food sections of department stores, among other businesses.We are astonished by the lack of morals in these industries as a whole.Black tiger shrimp was labelled “kuruma ebi” Japanese tiger prawn, ready-made juice in cartons was presented as “fresh juice” and Australian beef was called “Japanese beef,” to name a few examples of misrepresentation.After the revelation
Nov. 14, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Hope and despair in Egypt
MENOUFIA, Egypt ― A year ago, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders in this region of the Nile Delta seemed confident that they owned the future. But then came the military coup on June 30 that toppled President Mohamed Morsi and killed hundreds of his supporters. The story of this tumultuous counterrevolution is clarified by a visit to this town in the heart of the Delta. You encounter an odd combination of a bottom-up popular rejection of the Brotherhood and a top-down military putsch. I was happy
Nov. 13, 2013
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America’s best weapon against Iran is France
PARIS ― The Geneva talks on Iranian nukes have turned into a “pull my finger” charade. Iran says that it’s only making electricity, not nuclear bombs. The U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are somehow all supposed to agree on reeling Iran in ― but let’s face it: Russia and China are close Iranian allies and trading partners, while even Germany and France have significant geopolitical ties to Russia through, for example, the European defense conglomerate EADS and the Nord Stream pi
Nov. 13, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] Cleanse your brain with breezes on lovely islands
The endless rows between political camps over presidential “NLL remarks” and the “NIS interference” in presidential election are too annoying. To get away from the noise, take a trip to one of our beautiful islands, the remoter the better. In cool breezes and under twinkling stars and immersed in the delight of marine delicacies, you realize how insignificant those current topics are. In the weekly “Koreans’ Meal Table (bapsang)” program on KBS-1 TV, actor Choe Bul-am takes us to the hinterland
Nov. 13, 2013
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We need concerted action this World Diabetes Day
World Diabetes Day is Nov. 14, and we urgently need to address this plague right here at home.Diabetes is a major public health problem ― an epidemic ― in the United States. One out of 10 people over the age of 20 now has diabetes ― primarily Type 2 or “adult onset” diabetes ― and the disease is rapidly increasing. This increase has been particularly striking in the several Southeastern states comprising what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the “Diabetes Belt.” In Kentucky,
Nov. 13, 2013
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Rethinking education: Where elderly consolation begins
Regarding the Nov. 12 editorial “Dying alone,” it seems that the elderly desperately cope with scant resources to finance their later life. As highlighted in the article, by the time they are ready for retirement, the elderly have already spent sizable finances on their children’s upbringing ― that is, with little doubt, education and marriage. Although their children may luckily finance the traditionally high-cost Korean marriage once they establish a career, education is another pain. In Korea
Nov. 13, 2013
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The U.S. Army finds new missions in Africa
On the list of U.S. military priorities, Africa has always ranked right smack at the bottom. Now that appears to be changing. As Eric Schmitt recently reported in the New York Times, “thousands of soldiers once bound for Iraq or Afghanistan are now gearing up for missions in Africa.” Before the gearing up proceeds much further, Americans might want to ask a few questions. Chief among them are these: Why the sudden shift in priorities? What’s the aim? Who stands to benefit? What risks does the mi
Nov. 13, 2013
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[Editorial] Another coalition?
The main opposition Democratic Party has packed up its tent in front of Seoul City Hall. The party set up the tent more than 100 days ago as a symbol of its street protests against the National Intelligence Service’s alleged meddling in the December presidential election. The party folded up the tent not because it has ended its campaign to bring the truth to light. Quite the opposite. As its “tent protest” has failed to drum up much support from the public, the party is now seeking to escalate
Nov. 12, 2013