Most Popular
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No plan to let doctors with foreign licenses practice here anytime soon: PM
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Ador CEO's dismissal to be decided on last day of May
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[Graphic News] Beer the most favored alcoholic drink by Koreans
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Science Ministry expresses regret over Japan’s pressure on Naver
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Haeundae Beach to become sand art museum in late May
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Medical professors set to take day off amid protracted walkouts by junior doctors
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Hostilities get out of hand as YouTuber murders another outside courthouse
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Police officer jumps barefoot into drainage tunnel to save man
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Lee Sun-kyun's posthumuous film to hit theaters in August
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State-led adoption system to be established to ensure adoptees' well-being, minimize overseas adoption
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The Turkish model is unlikely to work in Egypt
CAIRO ― In mid-September, on a high-profile visit here, Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a hero’s welcome at the airport from a Muslim Brotherhood delegation.No wonder. Erdogan is a pious Muslim whose AKP political party has Islamic roots; his party has scored great success in a country with secular traditions and a secular constitution. The Turkish experience is often cited as a model for Egypt, where Islamist parties are expected to win a big plurality in coming elections.Ye
Nov. 10, 2011
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[Joel Brinkley] Pity the children of Afghanistan
Hardly anyone noticed, but the Afghan government cut the budget for the state’s Independent Human Rights Commission by half this year, evidencing “the government’s lack of interest and political will in the promotion of human rights,” the commission said.Nowhere on earth is the work of a human-rights commission more important than in Afghanistan. Why is that? If you want to judge a country, the best measure in my view is how it treats its children.By that standard, the United States is hardly bl
Nov. 10, 2011
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Elections a Reagan-era redux with a twist
The results of presidential elections in Nicaragua and Guatemala on Sunday ― won, respectively, by a leftist revolutionary and a right-wing military man ― could almost lead one to think we’re back in the Reagan era. Well, yes and no. Some of the characters are the same, but the roles are reversed. Former liberators are turning into tyrants; once-threatening militaries have become potential rescuers. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista National Liberation Front leader who helped topple th
Nov. 9, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Egypt’s prolonged struggle ahead
CAIRO ― How has life changed in Egypt since the revolution, and what’s going to happen in the parliamentary elections that begin late this month? I recently asked those questions in a poor neighborhood of Cairo called Ain el-Sira, and the responses amounted to a warning: The new Egypt must give these people a sense of security and progress soon, or it’s in trouble. “It’s worse since the revolution ― there is no safety, no security, no police,” says Nashwa Mustafa, a simple woman garbed in black
Nov. 9, 2011
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Why Obama might save Israel from nuclear Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency is set to release a report today offering further proof that the Iranian regime is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. No intelligence is entirely dispositive, but the evidence on hand about Iran’s nuclear activities, even before the release of the latest report, is fairly persuasive, and the IAEA isn’t known to be a den of neoconservative war-plotting. It isn’t interested in giving Israel a pretext for a preemptive attack on Iran unless it has to. The quest
Nov. 9, 2011
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Middle class pays for financial market mistakes
At one level, all financial crises are the same. A relatively small group of people, typically bankers, find the opportunity to take very big risks. For a while, financiers show high profits, justifying rising stock prices for their companies and large bonuses for their top executives. But these profits are never properly adjusted for what will actually materialize over five to 10 years, meaning that they understate risk and overstate true earnings. Greater short-term returns are often available
Nov. 9, 2011
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[Park Sang-seek] Different crises in the West and in the Middle East
The U.S. and Western European countries are still mired in the economic crisis and Arab countries have not recovered from the political crisis. These two different crises have engulfed the whole world and left it hanging it in the balance. The economic crisis has been caused by hyper-economic development, and the political crisis by political mal-development. In the West, financial capital has incapacitated the free market and corrupted industrial capital and undermined the entire capitalist sys
Nov. 9, 2011
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Unintended consequences of assassinations
There is no denying that 2011 has been a banner year for taxpayer-funded assassinations ― Osama bin Laden, Anwar Awlaki, five senior Pakistani Taliban commanders in October and many more. Given the crucial U.S. backup role in Libya, and the ringing exhortation for the Libyan leader’s death issued by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just before the event itself, we can probably take a lot of credit for Moammar Gadhafi’s messy end too.Once upon a time, U.S. officials used to claim that we
Nov. 8, 2011
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[Daniel Fiedler] Absurdity of law student quotas
Recently law professors in South Korea were asked their opinion on the latest version of the Korean bar exam, the test the new law school graduates must pass to become lawyers. Yet nowhere in the questionnaire was there opportunity to address the biggest issue, that of the quota system. Despite repeated attempts to open up the legal market in South Korea, the current members of the Korean bar have managed to retain a quota of around 1,500 new lawyers per year for the foreseeable future. This abs
Nov. 8, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] Living in denial ― Madoff family style
I didn’t see any Ruth Madoff masks on Halloween night, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if I had. The wife of disgraced Wall Street Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff was Pariah No. 1 last week, followed closely by her son, Andrew. The two, along with Andrew’s fiance, appeared on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night (Oct. 30) to promote their “authorized family biography,” “Truth and Consequences.”“I have been eager, I would say almost desperate, to speak out publicly and tell people that I’m absolutely not
Nov. 8, 2011
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MF signs death warrant for short-term funding
People ask me all the time: How could Wall Street powerhouses such as Bear Stearns Cos., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. disappear virtually overnight? How could MF Global Holdings Ltd. be here one day and gone the next? Why was Jefferies Group Inc., the midsized investment bank, whipsawed last week by rumors about its very survival because of questions about its exposure to European debt? What the demise of Bear, Lehman, Merrill, MF Global ― and the near collapses of Jeffe
Nov. 8, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] Danger of binary value judgments
Koreans often seem to be confused by the question, “Do good people build a good society, or does a good society foster good people?” The former claim may be the basis for a liberal, democratic society and the latter for a socialist country. Living in a group-oriented society, many Koreans ultimately seem to be inclined to the latter, believing in the power of a good society rather than in the strength of the individual. As someone who studies and teaches literature, however, I believe in the pow
Nov. 8, 2011
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[Shlomo Ben Ami] Ransoming the chance for peace
MADRID ― The exchange of prisoners between enemies is often a prelude to political reconciliation. Unfortunately, the recent exchange between Israel and Hamas, in which the Islamist organization gained the lion’s share of more than 1,000 prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, does not augur well for the chances of an Israeli-Palestinian peace.Contrary to appearances, the deal is not a reflection of both sides’ interest in beginning a political rapprochement that might lead t
Nov. 7, 2011
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Up to Cain to clear the air
Comparisons with Clarence Thomas began as soon as Herman Cain announced he was running for president as a Republican. Now, Cain is having his own Anita Hill moment.Two women reportedly accused Cain of sexual harassment when he ran the National Restaurant Association from 1996 to 1999. Apparently, the unidentified women were paid settlements, though association officials had not confirmed that. The New York Times reported that one woman received $35,000, which was a year’s salary.An attorney for
Nov. 7, 2011
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Arab spring in Cairo gives way to Nov. chill
CAIRO ― The massive crowds of rebellious youths have long since left Tahrir Square, which is jammed again with honking cars and trucks stuck in endless gridlock.Egypt’s revolution is stuck in gridlock, too, trapped by a standoff between seculars and Islamists. The Egyptian military is worsening the tensions. As elections approach, the generals are trying to ensure they will continue their dominant role even after the voting.Why have things gone so wrong? I asked three leaders of the Tahrir revol
Nov. 7, 2011
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G20: Key forum for adjusting global power shift
Following is an interview with Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state. He spoke with Global Viewpoint Network editor Nathan Gardels on Nov. 3. ― Ed.Nathan Gardels: Senior Chinese strategist Zheng Bijian has recently moved on from his doctrine of “peaceful rise” ― a defensive posture which he proposed as a way of saying China is not a threat to the world ― to a doctrine of global engagement: “expanding the convergence of interests to build a community of interests.”Do you see this conver
Nov. 7, 2011
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[Malcolm Fraser] Commonwealth’s lost opportunity
MELBOURNE ― A few weeks ago, representatives of 54 countries, mostly heads of government, attended the bi-annual Commonwealth Meeting. High on the agenda was a report by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), established to reinvigorate the Commonwealth, strengthen its secretariat, and transform its approach to human rights. The group included former Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby, former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, former Malay Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and
Nov. 7, 2011
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In girl’s death video, China sees growth’s perils
I’m on a trip to China this month, and it’s coinciding with some Middle Kingdom soul-searching about what Chinese people owe one another. In an age of “golden collar” workers made rich in the new economy, the Chinese are struggling to locate their social conscience. To move to the next level of development, the government needs to do the same. It’s an important sign that even as China’s leadership continues to censor the Internet, it’s allowing online safety valves to let off steam. The authorit
Nov. 7, 2011
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Mexico’s missing consensus on fighting crime
Mexico, battered by an interminable narco war, hasn’t found a firm consensus on how to combat organized crime. In Spain, which has been plagued by the violence of the Basque group ETA, such a consensus was slow to develop, until the escalating cruelty of the attacks drove the majority to join or support huge, public demonstrations against the separatists. This rejection helped cripple the ETA and drive the organization to its recent repudiation of terrorism. In Colombia, a long and brutal civil
Nov. 6, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Arab past meeting Arab future
CAIRO ― Diplomatic versions of the three-cushion shot in billiards are perilous, but let’s suppose you could accomplish the following: Lift the stature of Egypt’s fragile transitional government, support Israel’s desire for Arab recognition, re-animate the Palestinian peace process and deal a blow to Iran. It’s a tricky shot, and it would take a while to line up, but it strikes me that these goals could gradually be advanced if Egypt could convince the Palestinian group Hamas to recognize that a
Nov. 6, 2011