Most Popular
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'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
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Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Korean battery makers heave sigh of relief over 2-year IRA reprieve
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Over 80,000 millionaires, 20 billionaires in Seoul: report
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Indonesia’s KF-21 fighter jet deal cut back -- what’s next?
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[KH Explains] Can tech firms' AI alliances take on Nvidia?
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Police seek arrest warrant for med student who killed girlfriend
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Local filmmakers criticize ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ monopoly of screens
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Will China's self-sufficient dream in HBM come true?
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[Jeffrey Frankel] The new hour of the technocrats
CAMBRIDGE ― Greece and Italy, desperate after their gridlocked political systems left them mired in debt and crisis, have both chosen technocratic economists ― Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti, respectively ― rather than politicians to lead new governments. Both can be described as professors: Monti has been president of Milan’s Bocconi University as well as a European commissioner, and Papademos has been my colleague at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in the year since he finished his ter
Nov. 28, 2011
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Save money ― hire more police officers
At a recent Capitol Hill rally for the administration’s job creation bills, Vice President Joe Biden urged America to hire more police ― even in this era of austerity ― or accept that crime will increase.His point is worth considering. Although crime in the United States on average has shown a historic decline since the early 1990s, a recent Rand Corp. report shows that a 10 percent increase in the size of a police force decreases the rate of homicide by 9 percent, robbery by 6 percent and vehic
Nov. 27, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Charting an Arab transformation
RIYADH ― Spring is a distant memory now, including here in the Arab world. It’s harvest time, and people give thanks for what they’ve reaped in the hope it will carry them through the long and chilly months ahead. I think of these seasonal facts of life as I watch the television reports of chaos in the streets of Egypt and Syria, as revolutions struggle to be born. In this part of the world, the feast celebration is the Muslim religious holiday known as the Eid al-Adha, which came a few weeks ag
Nov. 27, 2011
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Is Korea really younger, smarter brother of China?
Korea the younger, smarter brother of China? The clich cumulates too many “no-nos” to be sustainable. First, nations are not anthropomorphic entities you can compare on moral grounds. Second, Northeast Asian relations can be as touchy as minefields, and the epicenter of Confucianism is not the ideal playground for audacious familial metaphors. Ask a Chinese nationalist, and he’d rather consider South Korea and its actual sibling, North Korea, as mere provinces bound to get back to their Motherla
Nov. 27, 2011
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[Peter Singer] Should we prohibit the sale of cigarettes worldwide?
PRINCETON ― U.S. President Barack Obama’s doctor confirmed last month that the president no longer smokes. At the urging of his wife, Michelle Obama, the president first resolved to stop smoking in 2006, and has used nicotine replacement therapy to help him. If it took Obama, a man strong-willed enough to aspire to and achieve the U.S. presidency, five years to kick the habit, it is not surprising that hundreds of millions of smokers find themselves unable to quit.Although smoking has fallen sha
Nov. 27, 2011
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Obama’s tripwire postpones Australia’s destiny
Barack Obama’s visit to Australia prompted the people of Darwin to take out $50,000 worth of insurance to cover him against the risk of a crocodile attack. The gesture seemed to delight the U.S. president. In a speech to about 1,000 Australians troops, his praise of the “legendary Diggers” (soldiers who fought in trenches) and “true blue Aussies” (Australians loyal to local values) went down a treat. The applause from troops at Robertson military base showed their support for a deployment plan t
Nov. 27, 2011
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Americans Elect: Another presidential gene pool
A few weeks ago I wrote about an effort to put a centrist “third party” candidate on the presidential ballot next year, launched by an organization called Americans Elect. The privately funded group plans to stage a wide-open primary on the Internet, to enable voters to choose a ticket drawn from the middle of the political spectrum. Voters can propose anyone they like, but the process is designed for potential centrist candidates such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Sen. Evan Bayh,
Nov. 25, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Arab Spring and the Saudi enigma
RIYADH ― On a main boulevard here is a forbidding building, shaped like the base of an inverted pyramid, where the Interior Ministry has its headquarters. It’s a place that scares Saudi liberals, cheers conservatives and symbolizes the tightly controlled security of the kingdom. It’s also the home base of Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince and likely future king, Nayef bin Abdul Aziz. During this Arab Spring of turbulence, Saudi Arabia has remained surprisingly calm. That’s due in part to the popul
Nov. 25, 2011
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Flood disaster reveals the true national spirit
The government and the public will have to work together to rehabilitate the nation after the flood crisis, to ensure that we emerge stronger. Beneath the lower growth-rate forecasts recently announced by some economic institutes, there are a number of issues that the government will have to tackle to ensure the nation rebounds in the long run.Instead of focusing on bolstering short-term growth, Thailand should have a comprehensive platform to address future natural disasters, to win back the co
Nov. 25, 2011
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Cyber cooperation needed
The United States continues to blame China for alleged intrusions into U.S. government and defense industry computer networks. This month a report released by the Project 2049 Initiative, a U.S.-based think tank, details China’s signals intelligence organization, and what role it thinks the People’s Liberation Army has in collecting cyber intelligence. And last month, a draft report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission claimed that cyber hackers “achieved all the steps requi
Nov. 25, 2011
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Should Monju reactor program be scrapped?
The Government Revitalization Unit has proposed a drastic review of the Monju program, which aims to develop a next-generation nuclear reactor. The review will include whether the program should be scrapped.During the unit’s policy review session that started Sunday, all seven members of the screening committee, which includes Diet members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the program. “More than 1 trillion yen has been injected so far, but the program has borne no fruit,” one
Nov. 25, 2011
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[Shahid Javed Burki] South Asia’s whispering enemies
ISLAMABAD ― The leaders of the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation recently met in the Maldives for their 17th annual summit. Previous SAARC summits achieved little in the way of regional cooperation. If they are remembered at all, it is for the progress made in getting India and Pakistan to talk to each another. While this time was no different, there are growing signs of a thaw in relations.Improvement in the India-Pakistan relationship ― the main obstacle
Nov. 25, 2011
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Giving thanks for productive insurgents, U.S. resilience
Scanning the public arena, some might be hard-pressed to find cause for thanks. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, inflicting pain on millions of Americans and undermining the futures of millions more. The economy at large is skittish, bracing for the sound of other shoes dropping in Europe. The national debt just surpassed $15 trillion. What’s more, the U.S. is sharply divided along ideological lines, with the opposing sides sorting themselves with dispiriting consistency by race, age and so
Nov. 24, 2011
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[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Anatomy of economic uncertainty
NEWPORT BEACH ― The sense of uncertainty prevailing in the West is palpable, and rightly so. People are worried about their futures, with a record number now fearing that their children may end up worse off than them. Unfortunately, things will become even more unsettling in the months ahead.The United States is having difficulties returning its economy to the path of high growth and vigorous job creation. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of U.S. cities, and thousands of others in E
Nov. 24, 2011
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Concerns for information security in South Korea
In today’s information society businesses are becoming globalized and interlinked with each other on the Internet. In addition, companies are handling larger amounts of data and managing confidential information. This obviously increases the potential risks of cyber security and privacy on the Internet for businesses.According to a survey in 2010 from the Korea Internet & Security Agency, Korean businesses seem in grave danger of information security vulnerabilities because of hidden risks. Firs
Nov. 24, 2011
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Can the American empire fight back?
The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!Remember what your elementary school teacher taught you about the War of Independence? The British wore scarlet coats, which made them easy marks and symbolized institutional pomposity, adherence to status over efficiency and an out-of-touch empire bent on doing things the old way. The rebellious American colonists, on the other hand, wore whatever; they were nimble, unencumbered by institutional baggage and not too proud to employ guerrilla tacti
Nov. 24, 2011
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Penn State squandered window to handle crisis
At least six months.That’s the minimum amount of time that Pennsylvania State University officials had to ready their public response before everything hit the fan in the Jerry Sandusky case. While the debate continues as to who within the Penn State community was on notice of Sandusky’s alleged sexual abuse of children over the years, it is undeniable that, since the spring, the university was on notice of a potentially earth-shattering investigation. Still, the ineptitude that appears to have
Nov. 24, 2011
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[Brahma Chellaney] Extremists waiting in the wings
NEW DELHI ― Following the death of Libya’s Muammar el-Gadhafi, Libya’s interim government announced the “liberation” of the country. It also declared that a system based on sharia (Islamic law), including polygamy, would replace the secular dictatorship that Gadhafi ran for 42 years. Swapping one form of authoritarianism for another seems a cruel letdown after seven months of NATO airstrikes in the name of democracy.In fact, the Western powers that brought about regime change in Libya have made
Nov. 24, 2011
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Tide of debate is slowly turning on climate change
The forthcoming Durban conference comes at a major crossroads in international relations, with continuing economic malaise in the West being counterpoised with the increasingly rapid shift of power to emerging economies. Mirroring this structural change is a fundamental shift in the center of gravity of the global climate change debate that few have yet to recognize. While the outlook for Durban is highly uncertain, a critical mass of countries are currently advancing landmark domestic climate c
Nov. 23, 2011
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[Benigno S. Aquino] Philippines joins the Asian race
MANILA ― In 1980, my father arrived in the United States to undergo a heart bypass, due to the rigors of his imprisonment by the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. The dictatorship offered him a reprieve, but, true to its nature, one dependent on its whims. Having already been condemned by a kangaroo court to death by musketry, my father refused to hoist a white flag. “The Filipino,” he insisted, “is worth dying for.”Three years later, my father went home, not to die, but to infuse new life into
Nov. 23, 2011