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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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[Shim Jae Hoon] U.S.-Japan defense accord upsets South Korea
The front-page picture in Korean newspapers told the story of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, looking frosty and gazing in the opposite direction, ignored Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe standing next to her at the Oct. 7 APEC in Bali. The two leaders barely exchanged greetings, according to a Japanese news dispatch, and kept their contact to a minimum, “only for a few seconds.”The awkward encounter was emblematic of widening gulf between tw
Oct. 14, 2013
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How changing a form can change people’s lives
In this period of political dysfunction, we could use some good news. Fortunately, there is some. Small reforms, costing little, can have a major effect on people’s lives.Consider the area of education. Low-income students are less likely to apply to selective colleges than their high-income peers. That’s a big problem, because students who attend selective colleges can obtain significant economic returns, and those returns are especially large for low-income students. What might be done to enco
Oct. 14, 2013
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Just past the hottest decade ever, it’s clear the globe is still warming
What is it about the hottest decade in recorded history that’s so hard to understand?The first decade of this millennium ― 2001 to 2010 ― was the warmest since measurements began 160 years ago. The earlier hottest decade was during the 1990s. And the record-breaker before that? The 1980s. These are undisputed facts.Nothing about this steady rise suggests our planet is doing anything but warming. Yet some people who have long resisted the consistency of this trend are now saying that climate chan
Oct. 14, 2013
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Shutdown is damaging U.S. reputation abroad
The dire effects of the government shutdown reach far beyond the hundreds of thousands of furloughed government workers ― along with all the stores, restaurants and other businesses that rely on them as customers.The shutdown is damaging America’s foreign policy in ways that may not be recoverable. The effects are not as immediately apparent today as, say, the closure of the Lincoln Memorial or the Head Start program hiatus. But how is the U.S. going to remain an important player in the world as
Oct. 13, 2013
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[Masahiro Matsumura] U.S. action on South China Sea
OSAKA ― Territorial and maritime disputes among China, Taiwan, and several Southeast Asian countries are roiling the South China Sea region, with little prospect of resolution anytime soon. But the current uneasy status quo may be tenable, so long as the parties embrace serious confidence-building measures through multilateral forums while maintaining effective deterrence vis--vis China and a commitment not to use offensive force.Naturally, China is eager to exclude interference by extra-regiona
Oct. 13, 2013
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Five years in limbo for the financial sector
NEW YORK ― When the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, triggering the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, a broad consensus about what caused the crisis seemed to emerge. A bloated and dysfunctional financial system had misallocated capital and, rather than managing risk, had actually created it. Financial deregulation ― together with easy money ― had contributed to excessive risk-taking. Monetary policy would be relatively ineffective in reviving the e
Oct. 13, 2013
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Germany’s Merkel stands firm with Greece
Angela Merkel, known as “Mrs. Nein,” is back for a third term as German chancellor, which is good news for a Europe that needs a grown-up to keep telling it, “No!” Greece, in particular, needs to hear that message as it tries again to evade more of its debt obligations and wiggle out of restrictions on how much its government spends.Merkel sailed to re-election with an impressive 41.5 percent of the vote last month. She is busy forming a coalition government, skillfully playing the Green party a
Oct. 13, 2013
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The hidden opportunity in the federal shutdown
PARIS ― Over a year ago, I sent my fingerprints for a standard foreign background check to the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., along with a money order. Both promptly disappeared, never to be seen again. A personal survey of those around me suggested that this was standard operating procedure ― which is why I suspected that America wouldn’t exactly implode if this kind of federal “service” level was formally kneecapped. Still, in shock there also lies opportunity.Sure, a few politicia
Oct. 13, 2013
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[Robert B. Reich] Republicans setting cynicism trap
An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he’s giving up. “I can’t stomach what’s going on in Washington anymore,” he says. “The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life.”My friend is falling into exactly the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into ― such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they’re free to take over everything.Republicans blame the shutdown of Washington and possible default on the
Oct. 11, 2013
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What makes and distinguishes a Nobel laureate?
This year’s Nobel Prizes are being unveiled this week. Are there any predictors that point to who will be selected? Here’s George Beadle’s (medicine, 1958) response: “Study diligently. Respect DNA. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink. Avoid women and politics. That’s my formula.”Is precocity in childhood a predictor? When the 2001 economics laureate, George Akerlof, was in second grade, he was asked what he wanted for Christmas, and he said, “A steel mill.” Asked the same question by his scientist father,
Oct. 11, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Turning off Doomsday Machine
WASHINGTON ― In the late 1950s, the famous nuclear strategist Herman Kahn facetiously suggested building what he called a “Doomsday Machine.” A computer would be wired to detonate a vast array of nuclear bombs if the Soviet Union took an action defined as intolerable. Kahn was joking. The point of his black humor was that official U.S. nuclear strategy was as crazy as his Doomsday Machine, in that it posited a war from which there was no rational escape. The alternative, wrote Fred Kaplan in his
Oct. 10, 2013
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Janet Yellen’s to-do list as the new Fed chief
President Barack Obama has nominated an exceptionally well-qualified economist as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. By the way, once confirmed ― as few doubt she will be ― Janet Yellen will be the first woman to lead the central bank in its 100-year history.The new chairman will have her work cut out. Five years after the financial crisis, the U.S. economy is frail, and its largest banks are still oversized and undercapitalized. Congress and the White House are so much at odds over fisca
Oct. 10, 2013
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[Salma Khalik] Lessons from Japan on an aging population
In 20 years, Singapore will have the same demographic profile as Japan has today. In other words, about one in four people will be over the age of 65.And in Japan, the picture is not pretty. Unless the right steps are taken and changes are made early, Singapore will face the same problems that Japan is trying to handle now.Japan has more than 50,000 people aged 100 years and older, with the vast majority living in nursing homes. These homes also have many patients who are in their late 70s and e
Oct. 10, 2013
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Educational crisis swallowing Taiwan’s next generation
As a developing country ― one that pulled itself up by its agriculture and light industries ― Taiwan has been gradually focusing more and more on its education; thinking correctly that it can progress into a well-developed nation with a generation that enjoys a better education than the one before.In the 1970s, private universities arrived, hoping to open another door to prospective learners that were stripped of the opportunity due to Taiwan’s limited budget for education. But who knew that the
Oct. 10, 2013
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Resilient Asia-Pacific key to global economic growth
The 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting was held in Bali, Indonesia, from Oct. 5 to 7 under the theme of “Towards Resilience and Growth: Reshaping Priorities for the Global Economy.” According to the organizers, the summit was aimed at building Asia-Pacific into a region of vitality to enable it to fuel global economic growth.APEC’s motto and motive are more that welcome, especially when large parts of the global economy are still struggling with economic downturn. Since the United St
Oct. 10, 2013
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[Jeffrey Goldberg] Iran’s true nuclear ambitions
Here is something to remember as nuclear negotiations between the West and Iran appear set to recommence: The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, the putative moderate on whose shoulders great American hopes have been placed, is proud of the work he did to advance his country’s nuclear program ― and also of his efforts to stymie Western attempts to stop that work.Rouhani didn’t talk about this during his recent visit to the United Nations. He came bearing a different message: Iran seeks a peacefu
Oct. 9, 2013
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Five reasons to fear the debt ceiling in the U.S.
The global economy is facing a bizarre man-made threat: Radical legislators in the U.S., issuer of the world’s most trusted currency, think forcing the government to renege on its obligations would be a good way to shock it into recognizing the error of its fiscally imprudent ways.Lest anyone take this notion seriously, here’s what would happen if that threat were carried out.To keep spending, the government needs Congress to pass a spending law. Republicans have already blocked this, resulting
Oct. 9, 2013
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[George Soros] Angela Merkel’s Pyrrhic victory on the euro
BUDAPEST ― As far as Germany is concerned, the drama of the euro crisis is over. The subject was barely discussed in the country’s recent election campaign. Chancellor Angela Merkel did what was necessary to ensure the euro’s survival, and she did so at the least possible cost to Germany ― a feat that earned her the support of pro-European Germans as well as those who trust her to protect German interests. Not surprisingly, she won re-election resoundingly.But it was a Pyrrhic victory. The euroz
Oct. 9, 2013
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Turkey’s ill-advised pivot toward the east
In January, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that because his country’s talks to join the European Union had stalled, he might seek instead to join China and Russia in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.Few took the threat seriously; Turkey has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since the 1950s. Yet the government’s decision late last month to award a $3 billion air and missile defense system contract to a state-run company from China suggests that Erdogan
Oct. 9, 2013
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Canceling the shutdown, playing by the rules
By all accounts, there are enough House Republicans prepared to join with Democrats to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling without demanding provisions attacking Obamacare. The only thing stopping them is the House leadership, which is refusing to allow appropriations bills onto the floor.But House rules give the majority a way to take this decision out of Speaker John Boehner’s hands. By signing a “discharge petition,” 218 members can force a bill onto the floor for a decisive vote.
Oct. 9, 2013