Most Popular
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Actor Song Jae-rim dies at 39
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'Are you a T?' is a new put-down in S. Korea
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Bitcoin hits record in Korea, even without ‘kimchi premium’
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Trump sours K-food outlook in US
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Korean study finds 'obese' BMI may actually be healthiest
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Boston Dynamics robot dog joins Trump’s security detail
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Hyundai’s Atlas robot takes the spotlight as Tesla's Optimus stumbles
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Leaked cables reveal Kim Jong-un’s orders to oppose human rights pressure at UN
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[Rising virtuosos] From Pororo to Paganini: 13-year-old violinist Lee Hyeon-jeong’s journey to the world stage
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Suneung for all: Opportunity, redemption and the right to dream
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No more sumo until bout-fixing rooted out
Penalties meted out to many sumo wrestlers involved in bout-fixing must be a catalyst for eliminating this unseemly practice from the sumo world. The Japan Sumo Association announced Friday (April 1) that it had punished 23 wrestlers and sumo elders who had rigged bouts.The penalties, including “a recommendation to voluntarily retire” and two-year suspensions from sumo tournaments, were imposed on
April 4, 2011
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[Dick Polman] Michele Bachmann’s lightbulb moment
Michele Bachmann, who is basically Sarah Palin with better articulation, appears to be mapping a 2012 Republican presidential bid. Swell. This means we’ll be hearing a lot more about how the socialists are coming to take away our incandescent lightbulbs.Seriously, this is one of Bachmann’s big causes. She happens to be flat wrong on the facts, but people who pay attention to facts probably wouldn’
April 4, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Gadhafi: A dictator in liquidation
WASHINGTON ― Col. Moammar Gadhafi has always depended on one strategic resource to hold his loopy government together, and that’s cash. But as the U.N.-backed coalition tightens its squeeze, Gadhafi is slowly running out of money ― and his inner circle is showing early signs of collapse. White House officials described a pressure campaign that is seizing Gadhafi’s assets, pounding his military and
April 4, 2011
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[Albert R. Hunt] Birthers movement may be boon for Obama
American presidents routinely have been savaged: Abraham Lincoln was called a “hideous baboon,” Dwight Eisenhower a communist and Franklin D. Roosevelt was described with epithets unprintable in this space. Few if any, however, have had the very circumstances of their birth or childhood questioned, until Barack Obama.Claims by the so-called birther movement that the 44th president wasn’t born in A
April 4, 2011
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Youth unemployment poses challenge to Middle East
NEW YORK ― Many factors underlay the ongoing upheavals in the Middle East: decades of corrupt and authoritarian rule, increasingly literate and digitally-connected societies, and skyrocketing world food prices. To top it off, throughout the Middle East (as well as Sub-Saharan Africa and most of South Asia), rapid population growth is fueling enormous demographic pressures.Egypt’s population, for e
April 4, 2011
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Wireless traffic jam and quest for bandwidth
The rapidly increasing demand for smartphones and mobile bandwidth has prompted some analysts and regulators to warn of a looming wireless traffic jam ― an irritant that some iPhone users in major cities have already experienced. Now, AT&T is proposing what it says is the fastest way to boost the capacity of its wireless network: buying T-Mobile. The $39-billion purchase would eliminate one of the
April 3, 2011
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[Scott Martelle] The collapse of Detroit
Imagine for a moment that every single person living in the city of San Jose, Calif., plus an additional 150,000 or so, just up and left. Vanished. Poof. Gone. Leaving their homes, business buildings and factories behind.That is, in effect, what has happened to the city of Detroit, according to 2010 U.S. Census data. The city that boasted 1.8 million residents in 1950, and was the nation’s economi
April 3, 2011
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[Joel Brinkley] Economy key to quelling China unrest
For a burgeoning world power with the planet’s second-largest economy, China may be the most paranoid nation on earth.Chinese leaders, utterly terrified of their own people, are taking every possible step to avert an uprising like those under way in the Middle East ― even though the only signs of fomentation so far have been vague musings on obscure blog posts.The anonymous calls for peaceful demo
April 3, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] Phyllis Schlafly: alive and back on the attack
This may come as a surprise, but Phyllis Schlafly, legendary conservative and leader (that is, victor) in the battle against the Equal Rights Amendment, is alive and well and still publishing books. At 86, she just collaborated with her 43-year-old niece Suzanne Venker on “The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know ― and Men Can’t Say.”If you’ve heard about this book, it might be becau
April 3, 2011
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[Guy Sorman] The hard right of France’s National Front goes soft
PARIS ― The central paradox of French politics was confirmed once again on March 27. In a nationwide vote to select local authorities (the so-called Conseiller Gnral), the far-right National Front gained 11 percent of the votes cast, but secured only 0.1 percent of the seats.This discrepancy between the National Front’s popular strength and its actual representation has been a permanent feature of
April 3, 2011
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[Frida Ghitis] We’ll remember 2011
Stop for a moment. Look around you and make a note of this time and place, because years from now you will want to remember where you were when 2011 happened.Moving along the path of human events, we have reached a fork in the road, a turning point in history. We don’t know what lies ahead.As this is written, the United States has ― most reluctantly ― entered another war in the Middle East, ostens
April 3, 2011
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Japan’s crisis will affect nuke power worldwide
The unfolding crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is, of course, not just a problem for Japan alone.The future of the peaceful use of nuclear energy around the world rests with how effectively this country can cope with the situation.Because of a nearly unimaginable natural disaster ― a devastating earthquake and ensuing colossal tsunami ― the Fukushima plant’s reactors, which were c
April 1, 2011
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[Trudy Rubin] U.S. student held amid Syrian unrest
When “Tik” Root’s parents saw him off for junior year abroad in Damascus, they never imagined he’d wind up in a Syrian prison.But Tik, who’s pursuing Middle East studies at Vermont’s Middlebury College, where his parents are professors, disappeared March 18. He was last seen walking near a mosque where protests had broken out. His father, Tom, told me the Syrian Interior Ministry has confirmed it
April 1, 2011
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[John Lee] Lack of reform at Chinese banks
Washington, D.C. ― The Bank of China was the first of the country’s Big Four to deliver its results late last week, with the others to follow shortly. Profit in 2010 was up 28 percent. The most encouraging figure was the decline in the proportion of nonperforming loans (NPLs) which fell to 1.1 percent, down from 1.52 percent in 2009. Similarly impressive figures are expected for the other Chinese
April 1, 2011
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Dam builders disregard ordinary people
Proposed dam on the Mekong should not go ahead until all social and environmental concerns are addressedInternational pressure is mounting as 263 non-governmental organizations from 51 countries step up their campaign to get Thailand to cancel the proposed Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River’s mainstream in northern Laos. In a recent letter sent to the governments of Laos and Thailand, the NGOs urged
April 1, 2011
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Wider dialogue in Burma
The military in Burma may or may not be ready for meaningful and inclusive dialogue with the opposition as it handed over power on March 30 to the government elected last November. If it were so inclined, it could simply respond to the offer that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made last weekend for talks to clear up “misunderstandings.” Even after the new, nominally civilian government take
April 1, 2011
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Expanding benefits for marriage and parenting
Taiwanese women are known for delaying marriage or seemingly choosing to stay single, depending on how you look at it. The average age of marriage for women in 2009 was 30 to 31. In 2010, 31 percent of women above the age of 15 were single, an all-time low for marriage, especially compared to the 7.3 percent of unmarried women in 2007.The largely single status of Taiwan’s most popular female enter
April 1, 2011
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[Nophakhun Limsamarnphun] Japanese crisis hits Thailand, ASEAN
It will take time, possibly around six months, before the Japanese automotive and other industries hit hard by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami will achieve a full recovery.However, most partial operations could be resumed much sooner, as early as the start of April. Substantial damage, especially in the northeastern part of Japan, was caused by the magnitude-9 quake and ensuing massive tsunami
April 1, 2011
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[William Pfaff] Unexpected revelations in intervention
MUNICH ― Events surrounding the military intervention in Libya these last two weeks, and what already has happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, and what continues elsewhere in the region, have produced two unplanned but important results.The always-implausible notion that the European Union could have a common foreign policy has been exploded. Since early in the Libyan crisis, France and Britain
March 31, 2011
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Address career colleges’ toxic choices in U.S.
For-profit colleges have successfully marketed a compelling story in which they star front and center as benevolent purveyors of the American dream through education and gainful employment.The reality is the complete opposite. Former students testified before a U.S. Senate oversight committee this month about exorbitant tuition costs and unfulfilled promises of good jobs. One student spoke of comp
March 31, 2011