Most Popular
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[Weekender] Geeks have never been so chic in Korea
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N. Korea says it test-fired tactical ballistic missile with new guidance technology
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NewJeans members submit petitions over court injunction in Hybe-Ador conflict
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[News Focus] Mystery deepens after hundreds of cat deaths in S. Korea
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S. Korea's exports of instant noodles surpass $100m for 1st time in April: data
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[Herald Interview] Byun Yo-han's 'unlikable' character is result of calculated acting
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US military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies
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[KH Explains] Why Korea's so tough on short selling
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Actors involved in past controversies return first via streaming service originals
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[Photo News] Seoul seeks 'best sleeper'
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[Pierre Buhler] Putin’s Brezhnev syndrome
PARIS ― The winner of Sunday’s legislative election in Russia was a foregone conclusion: United Russia, organized by Vladimir Putin. Likewise, there is no doubt that Putin himself will win the presidential election due in March 2012. But the public enthusiasm that ratified Putin’s rule for a decade has vanished, something demonstrated by the poor performance of his party, United Russia, in the just concluded elections to the Duma.Unlike Europe, beset by a sovereign-debt crisis, and the United St
Dec. 8, 2011
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Antibiotics overuse increases threat of superbugs
A new study of pediatricians’ prescribing habits told us something old and something new. It told us that antibiotics are overused. It also told us ― and this is the new part ― that doctors are using the wrong antibiotics, even when the bacteria-killing drugs are called for. According to the study, which looked at tens of thousands of visits to pediatricians outside hospitals from 2006 to 2008, in more than one in five cases doctors gave their young patients antibiotics. Very often (23 percent o
Dec. 8, 2011
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Trump, Cain exemplify debased debate era
The League of Women Voters quit sponsoring presidential debates during the 1988 campaign, saying the events had devolved into “charades devoid of substance.” That was more than two decades before Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann took the stage, redefining “substance” and “devoid” and “charade.” One remark you never hear this campaign season: “There just aren’t enough debates.” There have been about a dozen so far, with almost a dozen more promised by the time Florida holds its primar
Dec. 8, 2011
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Tired of nationalism? Try civicism and love your city
BEIJING ― “I love New York” is perhaps the most successful slogan in modern history. Cities around the world are copying this slogan. “I love Beijing” ― in English ― is commonly seen on T-shirts in the Chinese capital. It’s easy to be cynical, to say that the whole thing is driven by money. The “I love Toronto” website is advertised as a “guide to living well in Toronto,” which turns out to mean buying and selling real estate.But it’s not just a slogan: Many people really do love their cities. C
Dec. 8, 2011
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Obama and Hillary take assertive China stance
Was that the president of the United States, sailing across the Pacific Ocean, rallying allies ― old, new and potential ones ― and declaring this nation will remain a global power for many decades to come?Anyone who was paying close attention to President Obama’s November trip to Asia and other points in the Pacific had to admit the performance was something to behold. The president has never lacked in self-confidence. In the past, however, his plans to co-opt and cajole on the global stage have
Dec. 7, 2011
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[Robert Reich] Restore basic bargain for workers
For most of the last century, the basic bargain at the heart of the American economy was that employers paid their workers enough to buy what American employers were selling.That basic bargain created a virtuous cycle of higher living standards, more jobs and better wages.Back in 1914, Henry Ford announced he was paying workers on his Model T assembly line $5 a day ― three times what the typical factory employee earned at the time. The Wall Street Journal termed his action “an economic crime.” B
Dec. 7, 2011
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Revolutionary coup by Egyptian officers
MADRID ― How revolutions unfold depends on many factors, including a country’s socio-economic structure, its particular historical traditions, and sometimes the role of foreign powers. So the Arab Spring was never expected to be a linear process, or a Middle Eastern version of Central Europe’s non-violent democratic revolutions of 1989. Egypt is a case in point.The structure of revolutions in non-industrialized societies has almost invariably comprised a succession of revolutionary and counter-r
Dec. 7, 2011
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The American century: That was then, not now
If you want a gauge of an America on the downward slope, you could look at the recent poll commissioned by the newspaper the Hill, in which a startling 69 percent of respondents said they considered the country to be in decline. Or you could just consider the soaring language of this season’s presidential candidates. Mitt Romney, in a recent Republican debate on foreign policy, was typical, insisting that “this century must be an American century” in which “America leads the free world and the f
Dec. 7, 2011
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[Park Sang-seek] A new order emerging in the Asia-Pacific region
Two major regional organizations in the Asia-Pacific region, APEC and the East Asia Summit, held summit meetings in November consecutively. Discussions and statements made at the two conferences revealed not only participating countries’ varying positions on agenda items but also an emerging new Asia-Pacific regional order.APEC was established as an economic regional organization to promote the economic integration of major economic entities in the Asia-Pacific region, whereas the East Asia Summ
Dec. 7, 2011
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Reliving the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In August, just months following the tsunami-induced crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, the 2011 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs gathered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities destroyed in 1945 by atom bombs, becoming forever linked to the birth of nuclear weapons and the nuclear age. The World Conference was formed in 1995 to work toward a nuclear-weapon ban and foster solidarity and support for A-bomb survivors and victims of nuclear disasters.A few of t
Dec. 6, 2011
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[Daniel Fiedler] How to live in a democracy
In 1987 the Sixth Republic of Korea was established as a democratic government and Roh Tae-woo was elected as the first president; however, it was not until 1998 that the first peaceful transfer of power between opposing parties under a democratic process occurred when Kim Dae-jung became president. Prior to that event, the Korean people had lived under various forms of authoritarian government since time immemorial. While some of those past regimes, such as the Joseon dynasty, are viewed throug
Dec. 6, 2011
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A nuclear wake-up call from Iran, N. Korea
Western nations are hurriedly collaborating to tighten sanctions on Iran after the United Nations released documents that left little doubt the country is trying to produce nuclear weapons.American diplomats are pushing North Korea to shut down its uranium-enrichment plants so that nuclear-disarmament talks can resume. And as Pakistan grows less stable with every passing week, the U.S. is urgently devising plans to secure that state’s nuclear weapons, should the government lose control.Meantime,
Dec. 6, 2011
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Toward a peaceful Asia-Pacific region
MELBOURNE ― The Western Pacific is currently facing a difficult problem: how to accommodate China’s rising aspirations in a region where the United States has held primacy since the Cold War’s end. Is the U.S. determined to maintain dominance in the Asia/Pacific region? Or is it willing to operate through multilateral forums that allow all involved parties to help set the rules? The way this issue unfolds will determine whether peace will continue to prevail across the Pacific.It is hard to see
Dec. 6, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] In pursuit of a third possibility
Once again, South Korea is in political turmoil. One of our lawmakers recently became a lawbreaker by detonating tear gas in the National Assembly to protest the free trade agreement between Korea and the United States. Newspaper reports say that this lawbreaker declared himself a patriot who tried to save his country from the evil hands of national traitors, who are selling out their nation to American commercialism. He seemed to believe that the world is divided into two camps: patriots and tr
Dec. 6, 2011
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Record of brinksmanship shows Merkel’s mettle
During the financial crisis of 2008, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Nicolas Sarkozy for a private lunch in the Paris house of Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni. This gesture of friendship didn’t keep the French president from using a news conference shortly thereafter to harangue Merkel for refusing to supplement a 130 billion euro ($175 billion) spending program proposed by the European Union with an additional German spending program. When asked how their countries were reacting to the crisis,
Dec. 5, 2011
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Climate change: A matter of justice
DURBAN ― Before the Copenhagen climate-change summit two years ago, the two of us sat together in Cape Town to listen to five African farmers from different countries, four of whom were women, tell us how climate change was undermining their livelihoods. Each explained how floods and drought, and the lack of regular seasons to sow and reap, were outside their normal experience. Their fears are shared by subsistence farmers and indigenous people worldwide ― the people bearing the brunt of climate
Dec. 5, 2011
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Fed should stand ready for third round of stimulus
The Federal Reserve’s efforts to help dollar-starved European banks have pleased global investors, but the central bank’s moves can only temporarily distract attention from a dilemma back home: what to do about the exceedingly weak U.S. recovery. Lately, the patient has shown tentative signs of improvement. Today, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest since March 2009. Nonfarm employers added 120,000 jobs. Pending home sales are up.
Dec. 5, 2011
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Next president of KAIST should be a woman
KAIST plays a critical role in Korea as a trendsetter for the nation in the sciences. Innovations at KAIST quickly become innovations throughout Korea. It was a tremendous breakthrough when Professor Robert Laughlin of Stanford was appointed president of KAIST, bringing a new international emphasis to the institution. KAIST set a precedent through that appointment of hiring foreign faculty that impacted the entire nation. The decision by President Suh Nam-pyo of KAIST to employ English as the pr
Dec. 5, 2011
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Dudley should resign as New York Fed president
A major financial crisis is brewing, brought on by a toxic combination of failing European sovereign governments and highly leveraged international banks, which could be affected by a breakup of the euro area. In the weeks and months ahead, a major U.S. financial institution may face serious trouble, and government officials will have to decide whether that trouble is just a temporary lack of liquidity ― or a far more serious question of solvency. In the original lender-of-last-resort formulatio
Dec. 5, 2011
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[J. Bradford DeLong] The right tax rate for the rich
BERKELEY ― Via a circuitous Internet chain ― Paul Krugman of Princeton University quoting Mark Thoma of the University of Oregon reading the Journal of Economic Perspectives ― I got a copy of an article written by Emmanuel Saez, whose office is 50 feet from mine, on the same corridor, and the Nobel laureate economist Peter Diamond. Saez and Diamond argue that the right marginal tax rate for North Atlantic societies to impose on their richest citizens is 70 percent.It is an arresting assertion, g
Dec. 5, 2011