Most Popular
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Court refuses injunction on medical school expansion
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Jimin of BTS, actor Song Da-eun suspected to be dating, again
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Police raid popera singer Kim Ho-joong's house over hit-and-run suspicions
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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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N. Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: JCS
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‘Malice should not undermine the system, social order,’ says Hybe's Bang
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[Robert J. Fouser] Social attitudes toward language proficiency
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[Virginia Postrel] Serendipity and samples can save Barnes & Noble
Turmoil at Barnes & Noble Inc., where Chief Executive Officer William Lynch resigned last week after the company posted an unexpectedly large loss in the quarter ended April 30, has people in the publishing industry worried. “We’re all forced to ask: What would the book discovery environment look like without Barnes & Noble?” writes Rich Fahle, a former Borders executive who runs a marketing agency for authors. The question zeroes in on a growing problem for the U.S. book industry. Although read
July 15, 2013
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Radical Buddhism threatens Myanmar’s democratization
Two years into its transition from dictatorship to democracy, Myanmar is finding out how dangerous freedom can be. Since June 2012, when fighting broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in western Arakan state, attacks against Myanmar’s tiny Muslim minority have spread throughout the country. More than 200 people have been killed in Buddhist-Muslim riots, and more than 150,000 rendered homeless ― most of them Muslims. Many Burmese think that former regime figures are stoking the attacks, hoping
July 14, 2013
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[David Ignatius] A yearning for lost greatness
WASHINGTON ― Hisham Melhem, a prominent Lebanese journalist, recalls an emotional visit to the Great Mosque of Cordoba in southern Spain last May. With tears in his eyes, he found himself wondering how the Arab Muslim genius of a thousand years ago had veered in modern times toward such chaos and repression. Melhem later wrote a column for the Beirut daily An Nahar describing his visit to the Andalusia region, “roaming as if ... in a dream,” touching the pillars of the mosque in Cordoba and othe
July 14, 2013
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This Ramadan, what has happened to Islam?
This Ramadan I’m praying for a miracle. Islam’s holy month begins this week, and millions of Muslims everywhere are fasting, reflecting and asking God to answer prayers. Like millions of American Muslims, I will be thinking about the cycle of violence that appears to have taken on a life of its own, and I worry that cycle is unstoppable.The so-called Arab Spring was thought to mean a new beginning; but the wave of change did not bring freedom and prosperity to the region. Instead two years into
July 14, 2013
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Thailand needs to invest in people, not rice
The search for lessons from lost economic decades has led from Japan to the U.S. to Europe. Now the spotlight turns to Thailand. This may strike some as odd, considering Thailand’s 5.3 percent growth, its young and expanding population, and the surprising level of political stability in Bangkok. In her two years leading Thailand’s 68 million people, Yingluck Shinawatra has somehow managed to tamp down the virtual civil war that led to the ouster of her prime minister brother in 2006. Look closer
July 14, 2013
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[Tony Blair] The struggle for democracy in Egypt and beyond
LONDON ― The events that led Egypt’s military to remove President Mohammed Morsi confronted the army with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. Seventeen million people in the street is not the same thing as an election. But it is an awesome manifestation of people power.Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood was unable to shift from being an opposition movement to being a governing party. Of course, governments govern badly or well or averagely. But this is different. Egypt’s economy is tanking. Ordinary
July 14, 2013
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[Robert Reich] Patriotism is paying for U.S.
The 19 firefighters who died battling a huge wildfire near Prescott, Ariz., presumably were motivated by something other than rational self-interest. Like the first responders to 9/11 and other emergencies, and members of the armed forces, those firefighters put themselves in harm’s way (or chose a job that did so) because they wanted to serve.Economics, and much of public policy and political strategy, assume that people are motivated by self-interest, that the definition of acting rationally i
July 12, 2013
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Did Iranian meddling prompt Egyptian uprising?
In January, Egyptian newspapers reported that the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, had traveled to Cairo that month to meet with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s aides about setting up a spy service that would answer to Iran and circumvent the Egyptian military. Were the Egyptian people really going to sit back and allow Iran to take over their country?Imagine a conflict in which American, Egyptian and Israeli intelligence are all on the same side as the Egyptian people, drai
July 12, 2013
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Snowden fallout has been massive for U.S.
Edward Snowden has wrought more damage on the United States than any private individual in recent memory.It’s not just the theft and publication of classified material. That was bad enough because those disclosures make the U.S. look hypocritical and deceitful. The revelations are infuriating America’s allies and rivals alike. But the 30-year-old’s fervid attempts to find asylum are also setting off escalating rounds of anger and recrimination ― all of that aimed at Washington, too.Just one exam
July 11, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Conditions for a do-over
WASHINGTON ― The White House rationalized last week’s military coup in Egypt as providing the opportunity for a “do-over,” and that’s a comforting idea in more ways than one. But political life doesn’t come with an eraser to neatly remove mistakes and start over ― especially in the explosive Middle East. Egypt did need a new start. President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government had bungled so badly that Egypt was in the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as I described it a mon
July 11, 2013
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Japan’s attempt to whitewash own actions
Preparations for attempted “invasions” by other countries are on Japan’s radar even though its 2013 defense white paper admits that the possibility is remote.The white paper, released on Tuesday, claims that the security environment in the vicinity of Japan had grown severe last year, and it names China and other neighbors as threats.But this is just another attempt by today’s Japan to whitewash its own actions.China, Russia and the Republic of Korea all have territorial disputes with Japan, whi
July 11, 2013
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Beijing should stop gas field development
The latest development is serious and certain to raise tensions in relations between Japan and China, which are already at loggerheads over the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.It was recently learned that China is developing a new gas field near the median line between the two countries in the East China Sea, an area where a common borderline has yet to be defined.It can be said that China’s hard-line stance under President Xi Jinping has become clear, with his administration trying to exp
July 11, 2013
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SE Asia’s China relations
One of the most fruitful diplomatic and socio-economic relationships over the past decade must surely be that between China and countries in Southeast Asia, though not without the occasional hiccup.The ASEAN member states have enjoyed double-digit growth in their trade with the world’s most populous nation in recent years and it reached a record high of $400.9 billion last year.Now the third biggest trading partner with China, ASEAN is expected to become the No. 1 trading partner in the next two
July 11, 2013
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[Nirmal Ghosh] Cambodian strongman ‘eyeing political dynasty’
Asia’s longest-serving prime minister Hun Sen is seeking to build a political dynasty, analysts say, with both his son and son-in-law running in Cambodia’s upcoming general elections on July 28. At the same time, at least five other senior members of his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) also have their sons contesting the election.The CPP won 90 of 123 National Assembly seats in the last election in 2008. This time, while the party is certain of winning, it is also fearful of surprises and
July 11, 2013
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Rewards not punishments for Bangladesh workers
The U.S. is about to reimpose tariffs on Bangladesh in response to the country’s failure to improve safety in its factories. The European Union has threatened to follow the U.S.’s lead ― a move that would hit Bangladesh much harder. This punitive strategy is understandable, but there’s a better way to advance a worthy cause. More than 1,000 people died when a garment factory near Dhaka collapsed in April; a few months before, a factory fire killed more than 100. Safety standards in Bangladeshi f
July 10, 2013
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[Yoon Young-kwan] China’s North Korean pivot
BEIJING ― After a spring of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula, a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent weeks has brought some hope of a meeting of the minds, at least between China, South Korea, and the United States. But the emergence of a viable consensus on how to minimize the security risks emanating from North Korea’s mercurial leadership remains to be found.After a reportedly tough meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice Marshall Choe Ryong-hae, one of the four mem
July 10, 2013
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Why I became a Chinese shadow banker
In the fall of 2010, as deputy head of China investment banking at UBS AG, I spoke to a group of wealthy investors in Beijing about the outlook for Chinese stocks. A rumpled, 50-something man from Hangzhou named Wang Zhigang pulled me aside afterward and asked for my advice about investing. Until then, he had made his money through curbside lending, not stocks. But, he lamented, his returns had dropped from more than 30 percent a year to a mere 23 percent. He worried about his personal fortune,
July 10, 2013
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Young white women kill themselves by tanning
Despite the hoopla over dysfunction in Washington, the government can still do useful things. To prove it, the Food and Drug Administration should move aggressively to implement and then strengthen its proposed cancer warnings about tanning beds. A stunning 20 million to 30 million Americans each year use tanning beds. Use is particularly concentrated among young white women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 30 percent of white women between the ages of 18 and
July 10, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] What Park should do to save Sejong City
One morning last week, I took a bus trip to Sejong City to see for myself what was going on in the new administrative town out of curiosity as a concerned taxpayer and semi-active journalist. Peeping into the office buildings of the Sixth Bloc, the earliest completed part in the administrative complex that now houses four ministries and the Prime Minister’s Office, I had one lingering question: Would there be any room in the heads of those officials inside to think of good public service other t
July 10, 2013
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Koreans find it hard to break up with chaebol
Everyone loves a good perp walk. For South Koreans, Lee Jay-hyun’s made great theater. The sight of Lee ― chairman of the conglomerate CJ Group and grandson of Samsung’s legendary founder ― being led away by police last week on embezzlement and tax-evasion charges has been portrayed as an early victory for President Park Geun-hye’s five-month-old government. The arrest supposedly shows that Park is serious about reining in the chaebol ― family-owned behemoths that continue to dominate Asia’s fou
July 9, 2013