Most Popular
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Korean industries gauge impact of Biden's steep tariffs on China
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Do Korean doctors make too much money?
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Is FTC's conglomerate listing a boon or bane for Hybe?
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Why Korean crime stories typically feature nameless, faceless perpetrators
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Court refuses injunction on medical school expansion
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NewJeans to headline palace show
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Coupang's Kim Bom escapes chaebol chief designation again
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Debate on 'no-seniors zones' heats up
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Rare mid-May heavy snow warning issued over mountainous areas of Gangwon
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S. Korea, Cambodia forge strategic partnership
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Alternative to U.S. snooping is even less transparency
PARIS ― So-called “transparency advocates” who believe that splaying out all the intelligence activities of America and its allies will result in increased oversight, regulation and accountability have failed to learn the recent lesson of warfare: Whining about what you can’t handle just leads to more secrecy. That’s how we ended up with drones.When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, broadcast on cable news 24/7, became too much for a majority of the American public to bear, two viable options em
Nov. 3, 2013
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Fight against killer diseases an ongoing battle
MAPUTO ― One of the greatest successes in development aid in the past decade has been the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The Global Fund has saved millions of lives and helped countries around the world beat back three epidemic diseases. Now it is appealing to the world’s governments and the private sector for another three years of funding, with governments set to decide on further financing in early December in Washington, DC.Back in 2000, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was devas
Nov. 3, 2013
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A stiff cocktail of regional cooperation to fight malaria
When the powerful antimicrobial medicine quinine came to Europe in the 1600s, it changed history. Religious leaders, royalty and the fortunate few who could obtain it often recovered from the mysterious bone-shaking chills and fever of the little-understood affliction called malaria. The bitter powder gained popularity after it was credited with saving the life of England’s King Charles II and was later mixed with sweet water to form tonic and topped off with gin. The quinine-laced gin and tonic
Nov. 3, 2013
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How the Alger Hiss case explains the tea party
Many Americans have forgotten, or never learned about, the Alger Hiss case. One of the most dramatic trials of the 20th century, it helps explain not only the rise of McCarthyism in the early 1950s and the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but also the contemporary roles of Rush Limbaugh, Ted Cruz and the Tea Party.The Hiss case casts light on why conservatives and liberals are suspicious of each other, on their different attitudes toward elitism, on their understandings of patrio
Nov. 3, 2013
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[Joel Brinkley] Humanitarian disaster in Syria
It’s sad enough that at least 115,000 Syrians have been killed since the nation’s civil war began, but the World Health Organization reports that 575,000 others have been injured ― a number the organization expects to climb by 30 percent within the next few months.So what happens to these people with bullet wounds and other serious injuries? There’s the real tragedy: Almost two-thirds of the nation’s hospitals have been badly damaged or destroyed, 92 percent of the ambulances in affected areas a
Nov. 1, 2013
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Washington serious about reining in patent trolls
Tech companies have been pleading with Congress for years to crack down on abusive lawsuits by patent “trolls,” or firms that use obscure patents to extract exorbitant licensing fees. The companies may finally get some real relief, thanks to an unintentional assist from the trolls themselves.These lawsuit-happy patent holders have made reform a Main Street business priority by threatening to sue scores of retailers and small businesses for selling or using off-the-shelf products that allegedly i
Nov. 1, 2013
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[Shad Saleem Faruqi] Supporting gender equality
The U.N. Women Annual Report 2012-2013 has just been published. It puts forward a very perceptive and broad-based plan for gender equality and female empowerment.In addition to reiterating the need for increasing women’s leadership and participation, ending violence against females and enhancing women’s economic empowerment, the report breaks new ground by proposing engagement of women in all aspects of peace and security and making gender equality central to national development planning and bu
Oct. 31, 2013
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[Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg] Merkel’s American minders
BERLIN ― Germans used to joke that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s penchant for communicating via fleeting text messages effectively marked the end of traditional historiography. Well, at least American spy agencies seem to have kept full track of the behind-the-scenes communications ― in Berlin and beyond.Regrettably, U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration have yet to comprehend the scale and severity of the damage caused to America’s credibility among its European allies. The problem is
Oct. 31, 2013
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Stop spending on the missile to nowhere
If the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska is the “bridge to nowhere” ― a symbol of wasteful government spending on an unneeded project ― the Pentagon equivalent is the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS).The Gravina Island Bridge was supposed to cost $398 million to connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,250) with its airport on the Island of Gravina (population 50) ― even though ferry service already connected the two locations. But $398 million is a drop in the bucket compared to the
Oct. 31, 2013
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It’s time to start holding people responsible
Different groups have different reasons for opposing the blanket amnesty bill, which many Pheu Thai MPs are going full-steam ahead with.Some anti-government groups are fighting the bill because they can’t bear the thought of ousted fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra benefiting from it, while others want to ensure justice and retribution for what happened on the streets in April-May 2010. These are just some of the reasons why anti-government groups and the so-called “progressive”
Oct. 31, 2013
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Potent challenge
In the business centers of Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, there is a palpable excitement about the looming economic integration of the region in 2015.In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, some of the most forward-thinking businessmen are economists looking ahead and planning for the time when 10 countries will fuse into a single market of 500 million consumers.That air of anticipation, however, is somehow not as keenly felt in the Philippines, whether by big businessmen o
Oct. 31, 2013
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Mizuho has tough row to hoe to regain trust
Mizuho Bank appears to have hastily tried to end its lending scandal with lenient punishments. Given such lax punitive steps, the megabank faces a rocky path ahead to regain public trust that was lost by extending loans to gangsters.Mizuho should show strong determination to make a fresh start, even considering an overhaul of its management system.In connection with Mizuho’s loans to mobsters via its affiliated credit company, Orient Corp., among other entities, the bank has submitted to the Fin
Oct. 31, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Traps of realist Mideast strategy
WASHINGTON ― Talleyrand, the celebrated French diplomat, is said to have offered this inscrutable advice about the use of military power: “One can do everything with bayonets except sit on them.” Perhaps that’s a starting point in thinking about President Obama’s new approach of what might be called “strategic humility” about American power in the turbulent Middle East. How should we apply this pointedly ambiguous French aphorism? Obama might argue that rather than attempt to sit on the bayonet
Oct. 30, 2013
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It’s no shock that the U.S. spies on its allies
Charles de Gaulle, the French Resistance leader and later president of France, was once warned that he should not hate his friends more than his enemies. “France,” he replied, “has no friends, only interests.”It would be interesting to know how he would have responded had he learned, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently did, that his phone communications had been secretly monitored by an American spy agency. But it’s a pretty safe bet that he wouldn’t have been surprised.Merkel herself pr
Oct. 30, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] Why keep your son from learning in uniform?
Since the National Assembly hearing on the appointment of high government officials started in 2000, we have watched lawmakers use a common checklist for individual qualification, helped by the media. The top item of inquiry is whether the appointee and his children fulfilled the compulsory military service. Next come the questions about any speculative investment in real estate by the appointee’s family, possibly with false residence registration, and involvement in any plagiarism scandal if he
Oct. 30, 2013
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Storm clouds for the Fed
For months it was a matter of intense speculation: Who would President Obama nominate to chair the Federal Reserve? Now that he has named Janet Yellen, currently the Fed’s vice chair and an exceptionally well-qualified candidate, maybe we can move on to discussing a more important issue: the challenges facing the nation’s central bank.After having taken extraordinary steps to support the economy since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the Fed must now engineer a return to more normal policies, a
Oct. 30, 2013
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Greenspan’s new book gives partisan bludgeons
BERKELEY, California ― The first time I went to Washington, D.C., as an adult was in 1993, when I arrived to work for President Bill Clinton in the Treasury Department. Back then, America urgently needed to rebalance the federal budget to rein in explosive growth in the debt/GDP ratio; to overhaul America’s extraordinarily expensive and inefficient health care system; and to begin to deal with global warming via a slow ramp-up of a carbon tax.Beyond these three immediate issues were long-run pol
Oct. 30, 2013
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[Lee Jae-min] Tapping leaders’ phone calls
It has been no secret that intelligence agencies of many countries are engaged in information gathering activities using all means available for the interest of their countries. When it comes to this issue, the initial reaction has almost become the pot calling the kettle black. If, however, one of the targets has been the head of state or the head of government, that is a somewhat different story. Tapping the phone conversation of the top official for a long period of time is way out of line. D
Oct. 29, 2013
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China can’t talk way out of slowing growth
If imitation really is the greatest form of flattery, Shinzo Abe should be thrilled the Chinese are copying his “Abenomics” strategy to excite investors. The rest of the world shouldn’t be.China isn’t cribbing the Japanese prime minister’s actual blueprint, but his formula of spin and hype that has convinced the world something that doesn’t yet exist is real. The key to a great ad campaign is attracting customers and keeping them, something Abe has done with a brilliance that could teach the Ede
Oct. 29, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] Sorrows of aging people amid generational war
As we grow older, we come to realize that we gradually lose power and become isolated from younger people. At work, for example, you may feel dismissed by younger people simply because you are old, unless you hold a powerful position. Perhaps that is why older people yearn for power. And sometimes this greed for power results in self-destruction; dictators such as Iraq’s Hussein or Libya’s Gadhafi could have lived happily for the rest of their lives if they had transferred political power to the
Oct. 29, 2013