Most Popular
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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Floods highlight again the worst of Thai politics
Bangkok has become not only the last front in the battle against surging flood waters, but also a big question mark for future mapping of Thailand’s policies. The debate on how far the Thai government should go to protect the capital has been largely politicized at present, which is sad, but somewhat understandable. When a crisis reaches its climax, self-interests naturally come to the fore. This debate, however, needs to be addressed with a totally open mind after the waters recede.The crux of
Nov. 4, 2011
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Ultimate objective
Was it, indeed, a victory for President Aquino’s “all-out justice” campaign in Mindanao? That’s how the Armed Forces of the Philippines is characterizing the fall of a rebel stronghold in Zamboanga Sibugay province a few days ago. Described as a former camp of a dissolved faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the site is said to have very thick vegetation riddled with land mines, and is twice the size of Camp Aguinaldo. It was overrun by government troops following the Aquino administrat
Nov. 4, 2011
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Restoring Tohoku fisheries after disasters
In an attempt to restore fisheries in the Tohoku region devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government on Oct. 15 decided to allow new private enterprises to engage in coastal fishery farming if certain conditions are met. It plans to submit a related bill to the current Diet session. The proposed idea will be only applied to coastal fishery farming in “special restoration zones.”The total damage to Tohoku’s fisheries from the tsunami is estimated at 1.2 trillion yen. The prop
Nov. 4, 2011
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UNESCO makes right decision on Palestinians
The decision of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization on Monday to grant Palestine full membership should not be used as an excuse for the United States to cut funding for the cultural arm of the U.N. Nor does it justify the Israeli response to expand its new Jewish settlement plans. Both countries should recognize the trend of our times, which sees the Palestinian pursuit of rights and interests on the international stage as righteous. Though regarded as a symbol
Nov. 4, 2011
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[Chen Weihua] Reclaiming lost moral ground
Chinese traveling abroad three decades ago were often amazed by how modern the outside world was ― everything from skyscrapers and highways to cars and home appliances.The picture today is totally different. China has become the world’s manufacturing workshop, supplying home appliances and clothing to people all over the world. The skyline in Shanghai looks more futuristic than New York City and China’s infrastructure such as airports and high-speed trains is now the envy of the world.So it’s no
Nov. 4, 2011
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Wall Street occupiers misdirect their anger
“You reap what you sow” used to be a widely understood principle. Today, we seem to have lost that understanding as we watch the occupation of Wall Street and cities across the country. For three years, we have been hearing how big business is bad and how the rich are avoiding their fair share of taxes. President Barack Obama has been leading that charge, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that we are now seeing the spread of the class warfare he has helped to kindle. Let me say from the outset that
Nov. 3, 2011
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[J. Bradford DeLong] ECB battle against central banking
BERKELEY ― When the European Central Bank announced its program of government-bond purchases, it let financial markets know that it thoroughly disliked the idea, was not fully committed to it, and would reverse the policy as soon as it could. Indeed, the ECB proclaimed its belief that the stabilization of government-bond prices brought about by such purchases would be only temporary.It is difficult to think of a more self-defeating way to implement a bond-purchase program. By making it clear fro
Nov. 3, 2011
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The know-nothing candidate
If you’re astounded by Herman Cain’s rise to the top of the Republican pyramid, remember that Americans have long had a soft spot for the mythological outsider who rides to the rescue.Movie director Frank Capra was great at mining that fantasy, most notably in 1939, when Jimmy Stewart used his aw-gosh gumption to clean up corruption in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” And, far more recently in “Dave,” Kevin Kline played the amiable, innocent owner of a temp agency who accidentally becomes preside
Nov. 3, 2011
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Energy revolution keeps carbon on top
A remarkable thing happened in Silicon Valley during the past decade. Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs set their sights on clean energy as the Next Big Thing. They audaciously hoped to reinvent energy by harnessing the incredible innovation that had transformed information technology and biotechnology. Some of the best venture capitalists in the business, including my friends Bill Joy and Vinod Khosla, detached from their computing roots and focused on energy startups. The result was a stag
Nov. 3, 2011
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[Naomi Wolf] The people versus the police
NEW YORK ― America’s politicians, it seems, have had their fill of democracy. Across the country, police, acting under orders from local officials, are breaking up protest encampments set up by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement ― sometimes with shocking and utterly gratuitous violence.In the worst incident so far, hundreds of police, dressed in riot gear, surrounded Occupy Oakland’s encampment and fired rubber bullets (which can be fatal), flash grenades, and tear-gas canisters
Nov. 3, 2011
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Others pay price for Corzine’s risky revenge
In the end, Jon Corzine was little more than an unsupervised rogue trader. His disproportionately reckless $6.3 billion bet on the credit quality of a few European nations bankrupted MF Global Holdings Ltd. over the course of three dramatic days after the short-term credit markets quickly lost confidence in him and his firm. His gamble will cost MF’s shareholders and creditors billions of dollars and, virtually overnight, put the careers of MF’s almost 3,000 employees in jeopardy. MF Global now
Nov. 2, 2011
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[Meghan Daum] Women need to adjust to changes in mating economy
Kate Bolick is an attractive, educated and professionally accomplished 39-year-old who despite 20 years of dating and a string of steady relationships has ― cue the ominous organ music ― never married. In a long (at 12,000 words, very long) article that’s part personal essay, part enfilade of facts, stats and interviews with experts, she tells her story in the Atlantic this month. It doesn’t end happily ever after ― at least it hasn’t so far ― but this leaves Bolick not so much sad or even angry
Nov. 2, 2011
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[Sanjeev Sanyal] The end of population growth
NEW DELHI ― According to the United Nations’ Population Division, the world’s human population hit seven billion on Oct. 31. As always happens whenever we approach such a milestone, this one has produced a spike in conferences, seminars, and learned articles, including the usual dire Malthusian predictions. After all, the U.N. forecasts that world population will rise to 9.3 billion in 2050 and surpass 10 billion by the end of this century.Such forecasts, however, misrepresent underlying demogra
Nov. 2, 2011
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The Obama miracle, a White House free of scandal
President Barack Obama goes into the 2012 with a weak economy that may doom his reelection. But he has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest. The sight of Texas Governor Rick Perry tumbling out of the clown car recently as a “birther” (or at least a birther-enabler) is a sign of weakness, not just for the Perry campaign but for the whole Republican effort to tarnish the president’s character. Although it’s possible that the Solyndra LLC story will become a classic feeding fr
Nov. 2, 2011
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[Klaus Schwab] Three reasons to reform capitalism
Criticism of capitalism has increased in recent months. Protest movements, such as “Occupy Wall Street,” are outraged at the excesses of bankers who, according to the protesters, bear the main responsibility for the current economic crisis ― but apparently are not being held responsible. A growing number of voices from different parts of society are now showing solidarity with the anti-capitalism activities and reflecting the widespread frustration felt by citizens. Undoubtedly, these anti-capit
Nov. 2, 2011
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[Lee Jae-min] Korean frenzy over smartphones
The first digital revolution in Korea came with the wide penetration of broadband. Korea has been thought of as the most wired country in the world. The OECD has long been following the status Internet connections in its 34 member countries, and Korea has been steadily ranked first, with 97 percent households hooked up to a broadband Internet connection. The average for all 34 countries is 62 percent. This explains why Koreans are often frustrated by the slow and sporadic Internet connections ov
Nov. 1, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] Have Koreans forgotten their poetic sensibility?
In medieval Korea, poetry was often a medium of correspondence among learned men. People addressed each other in poetry and conveyed messages metaphorically in terse four or five-line poems or three-line sijo. The recipient of the correspondence would also reply with a poem. How poetic were our ancestors’ lives in those days! Westerners may find it hard to understand, but the power of poetry was so potent in Korea that it could remit one’s debts at times and even prevent war at other times. When
Nov. 1, 2011
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Targeting immigrants is a losing strategy
Republican presidential candidates are foolishly jockeying to see who can be the harshest on undocumented immigrants.Michelle Bachmann has called for sealing the U.S.-Mexico border with a double wall. Not to be outdone, Herman Cain has called for an electrified fence backed by military personnel armed with live rounds (though he later said the electrified fence was a joke). And Rick Perry wants more drones in the sky.These positions reveal a cruel disregard for basic human rights and invite a ca
Nov. 1, 2011
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The rich got richer ― and so did most Americans
In the political and economic climate created by consistently high unemployment and shaken by the Occupy Wall Street movement, last week’s Congressional Budget Office report on trends in U.S. household income had the effect of pouring kerosene on a bonfire. The report’s most striking finding, that “for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income, average real after-tax household income grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007,” led to apocalyptic predictions not just from those at Z
Nov. 1, 2011
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Fenced-in thinking
A record number of immigrants were deported in fiscal 2011. You’d think that would be greeted as good news by Republicans, who have repeatedly demanded that the Obama administration crack down on illegal immigration. But it won’t be. The latest numbers, released last week, are unlikely to sway the current field of Republican presidential hopefuls, who steadfastly refuse to discuss fixing the broken immigration system, arguing that only stricter enforcement, tougher penalties and a 100 percent se
Nov. 1, 2011