Most Popular
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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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[Graphic News] How much do Korean adults read?
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The political center resurgent in Israel
Few people were likely to have been as surprised by last week’s general election in Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu thought he went into the ballot from a position of strength and expected a mandate from voters, if not for him and his party, then certainly for the rightwing of the political spectrum where he is firmly rooted.Instead, Israeli voters divided almost exactly in half, and conservatives even lost four seats from the previous Parliament. It was a stunning rebuke,
Feb. 3, 2013
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[Joel Brinkley] Vietnam’s appetites unique
You don’t have to spend much time in Vietnam before you notice something unusual. You hear no birds singing, see no squirrels scrambling up trees or rats scurrying among the garbage. No dogs out for a walk.In fact, you see almost no wild or domesticated animals at all. Where’d they all go? You might be surprised to know: Most have been eaten.Of course, as with most states in the region, tigers, elephants, rhinos and other big animals are trafficked to China. At this, of course, Vietnam is hardly
Feb. 3, 2013
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How to get the most out of your worrying time
Edge.org is a website where really smart people write about subjects that make most people’s heads hurt. I check it out whenever I need to feel particularly stupid.Each year, John Brockman, the literary agent who runs the Edge Foundation, invites a group of ridiculously brilliant people to write essays about a single subject, usually a scientific one. This year’s subject was suggested by the technology historian George Dyson: “What should we be worried about?”Dyson’s premise: “(P)eople tend to w
Feb. 3, 2013
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[Shim Jae Hoon] North Korea tests both China and the world
SEOUL ― Repeating the past, North Korea’s young ruler Kim Jong-un has threatened the U.S. and South Korea with dire consequences for opposition to the nation’s missile adventurism. In a break from the past, Kim issued thinly disguised criticism of North Korea’s principal benefactors ― China and Russia. The latest turn in North Korea’s brinkmanship will test China’s newly installed party Secretary General Xi Jinping.In strident responses to U.N. Security Council’s Jan. 24 resolution stiffening sa
Feb. 3, 2013
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[Meghan Daum] Getting back at authors who mislead their readers
It’s not easy being a book consumer these days. For starters, books seem so long ― at least compared to the blog posts and online news items that have recalibrated the pace of the average American attention span.And that’s not the half of it. Some books will kill your dreams. Worse, they’ll build up your dreams and then knock them down without so much as a refund or a credit for a Frappuccino at Barnes & Noble. When that happens, the only choice is to sue.At least that seems to be the logic of R
Feb. 3, 2013
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Mali demands a muscular U.S. strategy
Over the last weekend came welcome news that Obama administration officials had stopped dithering and moved to provide help urgently sought by the French in their battle against al-Qaida terrorists in Mali: U.S. officials dispatched air tankers to refuel French warplanes.We hope that ends weeks of Hamlet-like indecision at the White House over how much logistical aid to provide in the battle to keep Mali from becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida. The U.S. should provide all the support the French
Feb. 1, 2013
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[Yoon Young-kwan] Lesson from the ‘Sleepwalkers’
SEOUL ― Whether East Asia’s politicians and pundits like it or not, the region’s current international relations are more akin to 19th-century European balance-of-power politics than to the stable Europe of today.Witness East Asia’s rising nationalism, territorial disputes, and lack of effective institutional mechanisms for security cooperation. While economic interdependence among China, Japan, South Korea and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations continues to deepen, their
Feb. 1, 2013
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[Michael Boskin] Leviathan, Buchanan analysis
STANFORD ― A successful society needs effective, affordable government to perform its necessary functions well, and that includes sufficient revenue to fund those functions. But a government that grows too large, centralized, bureaucratic, and expensive substantially impairs the private economy by eroding individual initiative and responsibility; crowding out private investment, consumption, and charity; and damaging incentives with high tax rates. It also risks crowding out necessary government
Jan. 31, 2013
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Powers need to engage, manage North Korea
Just as the global community was daydreaming about permanent peace in the Korean Peninsula stemming from what many billed as a first good first year in power for the young Kim Jong-un, the world was quickly brought back into reality in an abrupt manner.North Korea launched a long-range rocket. Condemnation from the United Nations quickly followed. Pyongyang retaliated just as quickly by threatening to carry out a third nuclear test allegedly designed to “take down” the United States.“We are not
Jan. 31, 2013
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Abe’s strategy for building a strong Japan
As the 150-day ordinary Diet session kicked off Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered his first policy speech since becoming prime minister following the Liberal Democratic Party’s victory in the Dec. 16 Lower House election. He said Japan is facing crises with regard to the economy, damage from the 3/11 disasters, diplomacy and education. He pledged to do his best to resolve these crises.Conspicuously he avoided mention of his controversial ideas of changing the government’s interpretatio
Jan. 31, 2013
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Battling bullies
What makes bullying so terrible is that it takes something full of brightness ― childhood ― and buries it in darkness. Bullying is a sordid reality in our schools that has caused many children deep suffering and distress. There are too many instances of children being so harassed that they become physically ill ― or worse.It’s time bullying was regarded as what it is: aberrant behaviour. This month, St. Louis University Laboratory Elementary School (SLU-LES) in Baguio city (north Philippines) ha
Jan. 31, 2013
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[Andrew Sheng] Deposit insurance traced back to Qing Dynasty
I love the Internet. The best Christmas present I got last year was a preview of a forthcoming book by a banker and historian in Boston. He sent me electronically his Ph.D. thesis, a piece of masterly detective work on how ideas travel over time and space, become adopted successfully in a different place, and then come back to where they started.Dr. Frederic Grant Jr.’s forthcoming book uncovered how that the U.S. bank deposit insurance system has its root in ideas borrowed from Canton of the 19
Jan. 31, 2013
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[David Ignatius] In ’56 crisis, some parallels
WASHINGTON ― Chuck Hagel means it when he describes himself as an “Eisenhower Republican.” He kept a bust of President Dwight Eisenhower in his Senate office for a dozen years, and has a portrait of Ike on the wall of his current office at Georgetown University. But the most compelling evidence of Hagel’s fascination is that he purchased three-dozen copies of an Eisenhower biography and gave copies to President Obama, Vice President Biden and then-Defense Secretary Bob Gates, according to the bo
Jan. 30, 2013
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U.S. Congress comes out of hiding on immigration
A marginalized group emerged from the shadows Monday to assert that they indeed have a voice, and a future, in American society. We speak, of course, of members of Congress. After years of scurrying for political cover, a brave handful of senators held a daylight, weekday news conference in Washington to present ― in writing ― a surprisingly detailed outline for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws. This is new. What’s more, the group of senators backing the outline is thoroughly bipartisan
Jan. 30, 2013
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Three selected by Obama may be one too many
In February 2008, a helicopter transporting three U.S. senators had to make an emergency landing in Afghanistan. A crash was averted and all three ― Joe Biden, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel ― survived. Already friends, they bonded over the experience, say people who know them.Now these three amigos are set to reunite in the Obama Cabinet, Biden as veep, Kerry as secretary of state, and former Republican Sen. Hagel as secretary of defense ― although his confirmation hearings will be contentious. The
Jan. 30, 2013
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Leader with spine takes on world heavyweight
Say what you want about Benigno Aquino, but the Philippine president has some brass. First he arrested predecessor Gloria Arroyo on corruption charges and ousted her Supreme Court chief justice. Then he took on the powerful Catholic Church, shepherding free-contraception laws that enraged the Vatican. Next he ran afoul of the local tycoons by backing higher taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. By tackling these issues along with economic reforms, Aquino’s country is on the way toward an investment-g
Jan. 30, 2013
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[Itamar Rabinovich] Netanyahu set to become weaker prime minister
TEL AVIV ― Few foresaw the surprising setback suffered by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his Likud party, and the right in general in Israel’s recent general election. It is an outcome that will have important ramifications for Israel’s domestic politics and foreign policy alike, particularly its Middle Eastern diplomacy.Although the final vote tally awaits (soldiers’ votes have not yet been fully counted), the basic result is known. Given the current stalemate between the right and left, a
Jan. 30, 2013
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[Daniel Fiedler] Pardoning corruption again
Once again during his presidential term, Lee Myung-bak has used the presidential pardon power, and once again during his presidential term the pardon power has been misused. Although the Blue House asserts such uses have been in strict accordance with law or in the pursuit of the national interest, the truth is that the use of this power to pardon family members, close confidants, or high-ranking chaebol members disregards both the spirit of the power and the original intent behind the power. Ev
Jan. 29, 2013
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Egypt’s transition needs some quiet U.S. help
If ever there was a moment for the U.S. to lead from behind, it is in Egypt and it is now. The popular revolt that began in Cairo’s Tahrir Square two years ago was the most inspiring of the Arab Spring, but what has followed has proved to be the opposite. Amid the chaos, the U.S., Europe and others are holding back on commitments to the Arab world’s largest and most important country. Every step along the way since former President Hosni Mubarak left office in February 2011 has demonstrated how
Jan. 29, 2013
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This soldier’s skill had nothing to do with gender
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a hunter.She tracked men and she killed them. And no woman was ever better at it.She’d hide under bushes in the snow. Or she’d find a burned-out building and watch in the gray rubble in the cold, waiting for enemy soldiers.And when she’d see them, she’d put her scope on them from a distance, put the cross hairs right on their heads or chests, and pull the trigger.Lyudmila Pavlichenko, hero of the Soviet Union, was a sniper, credited with an astounding 309 kills during Wo
Jan. 29, 2013