Most Popular
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Over 80,000 millionaires, 20 billionaires in Seoul: report
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Yoon apologizes for first lady Dior bag scandal, calls push for special probe ‘political’
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Korean battery makers heave sigh of relief over 2-year IRA reprieve
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Young Korean doctors seek plan B: cosmetic dermatology or overseas
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South Korea open to Indonesian proposal to cut KF-21 payments
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Girl hanging on bridge, police trying to rescue her both fall off; rescued immediately
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Korea forecast to overtake Taiwan in chip production by 2032: report
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Coupang earnings hit hard by losses from ailing Farfetch
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[K-pop’s dilemma] Time, profit pressures work against originality
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Why femicide and dating violence are growing issues in S. Korea
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What not to do about Iran ― military action
JERUSALEM ― Last spring, Israel’s former spy chief, Meir Dagan, said bombing Iran would be “a stupid idea” for Israel. It would mean regional war and give Iran “the best possible reason to continue its nuclear program.”Those words hung in the air during an extraordinary media debate here over the last two weeks that preceded the release of a U.N. report giving new evidence of Iranian plans to build nuclear weapons. The debate laid out details on a topic rarely discussed here in public: Should th
Nov. 15, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] Are you insured for emergencies?
In the U.S., insurance seems to be an imperative prerequisite of human existence. The American people are well-known to be thoroughly prepared for a rainy day and thus have various contingency plans for emergencies. Compared to Korea where people are more optimistic and thus do not feel compelled to be insured, the Americans’ fondness for (or obsession with) insurance seems somewhat excessive and redundant. Americans seem to think they need an insurance policy for virtually everything. For examp
Nov. 15, 2011
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A healthier way to provide U.S. universal care
Last month, the Obama administration abandoned the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, the landmark national long-term-care insurance program that was included in the 2010 health-reform law. CLASS was probably doomed from the start ― a victim of political ill will and poor design. Premiums would have been high and too few healthy people would have enrolled. But it would have been an important first step toward the fiscally sustainable national-insurance program we need
Nov. 14, 2011
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[Robert Reich] The coming collision in the U.S.
The biggest question in America these days is how to revive the economy.The biggest question among activists now occupying Wall Street and dozens of American cities is how to strike back against the nation’s almost unprecedented concentration of income, wealth and political power in the top 1 percent.The two questions are related. With so much income and wealth concentrated at the top, the vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing. (Peop
Nov. 14, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] Personhood USA: Zygotes on a slippery slope
When I first heard about Personhood USA, I got it confused with Up with People, the organization best known for song-and-dance troupes that go around the world singing songs like “Which Way America?” and “What Color Is God’s Skin?” When I realized it was actually an anti-abortion group devoted to the idea that any fertilized human egg should be considered a person, I still couldn’t shake the image of wholesome young performers spreading fetus love across the globe. Instead of singing about peace
Nov. 14, 2011
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How to overthrow the Iranian regime without war or sanctions
PARIS ― It seems the “success” of the Libyan campaign has again whetted the appetite of Western powers to intervene more aggressively in Iranian affairs. However, the threat of military intervention and the use of economic sanctions that bring suffering for ordinary Iranians only strengthens the grip of Iran’s mafia regime on its power. Any leader who implicitly or explicitly advocates such policies therefore, in effect, plays into the hands of a fragile regime that can only sustain itself throu
Nov. 14, 2011
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[Joel Brinkley] China obsessed with Occupy Wall Street movement
Right now, China is obsessed with the Occupy Wall Street movement, deathly afraid that it will spread there. How can I tell?The China Daily recently ran a column headlined: “U.S. Media Blackout of Protest is Shameful.” The Lexis-Nexis news service shows that on the very day that column ran, the American news media carried 282 stories about the movement, and in the weeks before, the total was 631.So I called the author, Chen Weihua, deputy editor of China Daily USA. He’s based in New York.“Well,
Nov. 14, 2011
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Looking for a bride? Tajiks turn to kidnapping
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan ― Kidnapping the woman you want to marry is a well-known, if illegal, tradition in parts of Central Asia. Until recently, such abductions occurred mainly among ethnic Kyrgyzs and Kazaks.But now the idea seems to be catching on among Tajiks as well.“Our neighbor was abducted on her wedding day by the guy who was in love with her,” said Qaisiddin, a resident of the Jirgatal district in Tajikistan. “No one knows where he took her.”According to the resident of this district with
Nov. 13, 2011
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Energy markets or governance?
MADRID ― This month, the International Energy Agency will publish its annual report, the internationally definitive World Energy Outlook, which will confirm that we are not on the right track to reduce global warming. If the current trend in energy production continues, the earth’s average temperature will be more than 2 degrees Celsius higher in 2100 than it was in 1990, irreversibly harming the planet and conditions for human life.Other, more immediate crises are occupying the world’s attentio
Nov. 13, 2011
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Global eye: The Busan International Film Festival
It is no coincidence that the Busan International Film Festival flaunted a political montage this year, among the rubble of fallen empires, worldwide revolutions in the name of freedom and nuclear-born tensions. And it is no coincidence that these films were once again epiphanous with the same historical motifs that have been at the heart of human storytelling since its dawn. But there is something different each year ― and that is, that we are brought into new parts of ourselves and given new e
Nov. 13, 2011
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[Peter Orszag] Winds of change blow away value of college degrees
Many parents in the U.S. are legitimately concerned about the prospects for their college-age children. After all, today’s students face three overlapping challenges: a long-term structural shift as the world’s effective labor supply expands; rising tuition and growing concerns about the quality of public higher education; and the misfortune of graduating into a weak labor market. The first challenge arises from rapid shifting of the tectonic plates that underlie the world labor market. Over the
Nov. 13, 2011
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Corzine downfall is teachable moment for Japan
The contrast couldn’t be bigger between the downfalls of Jon Corzine and Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. As Corzine left MF Global Holdings Ltd., all anyone could talk about was $633 million. That’s how much regulators initially said was unaccounted for as the New York futures broker went bust and spooked markets. In the case of Kikukawa, the former chairman of Tokyo-based Olympus Corp., a similar figure cropped up: $687 million. That’s how much vanished in mysterious fees paid to advisers in an acquisition.
Nov. 11, 2011
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Globalization of social protest
NEW YORK ― The protest movement that began in Tunisia in January, subsequently spreading to Egypt, and then to Spain, has now become global, with the protests engulfing Wall Street and cities across America. Globalization and modern technology now enables social movements to transcend borders as rapidly as ideas can. And social protest has found fertile ground everywhere: a sense that the “system” has failed, and the conviction that even in a democracy, the electoral process will not set things
Nov. 11, 2011
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The Group of 20 stumbles as crisis worsens
The Group of 20 was launched from the embers of the 2008 global economic meltdown, a recognition that the world needed a new mechanism to manage economic affairs. The Group of Eight, which had played the role since the 1980s, was considered outdated and incapable of dealing with emerging economic concerns, primarily because its membership did not reflect economic strength and influence.Yet since its initial meeting at which leaders agreed to staunch the hemorrhaging that threatened to create a n
Nov. 11, 2011
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When politics and law collide
The decision by the Law and Human Rights Ministry last week to issue a moratorium on sentence remissions for graft convicts while observing frequent cases of controversial sentence reductions for convicted corruptors deserves the full support of us all, for better or worse.Such a policy will expectedly ensure justice is served and eventually improve the image of the country’s judicial system, which has been repeatedly tarnished by cases of irregularities and violations of laws and regulations.De
Nov. 11, 2011
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[Kavi Chongkittavorn] Can ASEAN centrality be kept at East Asia Summit?
When the Association of Southeast Asian Nations decided to invite the United States and Russia to join the premium leader-led East Asia Summit in July 2010, it had no idea that their presence would impact on the overall pattern of engagement with other dialog partners.As it turns out, the desire to construct an expansive ASEAN-led regional architecture is being challenged fervently by other non-ASEAN EAS members. They have already collectively demanded to be treated as equal, as the sixth EAS sc
Nov. 11, 2011
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A horrible sea change for game fishermen
The sea has been exceedingly good to my family. Back in my grandfather’s day, the fish were bigger and the tales of catching them biggest of all. One of the largest problems for an angler after hooking an elusive marlin or sailfish was reeling it in before sharks robbed you of your prize ― a frenzied race against these tireless hunters of the deep.These experiences, facing off against nature in the wide-open ocean, were a key inspiration for “Papa’s” Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Old Man an
Nov. 10, 2011
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[Robert Reich] Wall Street is back to its old tricks
This week, President Obama travels to Wall Street, where he’ll demand ― in light of the Street’s continuing antics since the bailout, as well as its role in watering down the Volcker rule ― that the Glass-Steagall Act be resurrected and big banks be broken up.I’m kidding. But it would be a smart move.Americans of whatever stripe ― from Tea Partiers on the right to Occupiers on the left ― continue to hold Wall Street at least partly responsible for the nation’s continuing misery. With good reason
Nov. 10, 2011
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‘Old enough to be friends’
In these luminous days of high skies and fat horses, as Koreans describe their crisp autumn season, I feel I have come home ― to a place I hardly recognize.Forty-one years ago I left Korea, after working here for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English at a women’s college. Recently, as I stood in Gwanghwamun Plaza, gawking at the skyscrapers soaring above the renovated heart of this ancient Joseon capital, the techno-bling of the new century looked more like Abu Dhabi than the Se
Nov. 10, 2011
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America now more keen on its civil service than Russia
Russian’s non-Putin President Dmitry Medvedev (a.k.a. President Placeholder) met with a group of small businessmen in Moscow over the summer to discuss their challenges. One can only imagine where to start. So Medvedev, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, offered some direction: “The youth believe that (the civil service) is an example of how to be successful quickly without the need to apply any effort.” He suggested that a bureaucratic career could lead to the kind of corrupt mentality
Nov. 10, 2011