Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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[Graphic News] French bulldog most popular breed in US, Maltese most popular in Korea
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[Trudy Rubin] Areas to watch for progress in 2011
I hope that 2011 will provide better foreign policy stories than 2010 did.Consider this woeful litany: The continuing fighting in Afghanistan, the jihadis and floods of Pakistan, a recovering but deeply troubled Iraq, a nuclear-bent Iran that crushed the “Green” opposition. Add a failed Mideast peace process, an increasingly aggressive China and regressive Russia, and a United States drawn inward
Jan. 5, 2011
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[Sanjeev Sanyal] India’s elites in legitimacy crisis amid series of scandals
NEW DELHI ― For a country with 1.2 billion people, India is ruled by a surprisingly small elite, which runs everything from the government to large companies and even sports bodies. But a series of scandals, some involving billions of dollars, has now seriously undermined that elite’s standing in the eyes of the Indian public.Almost anyone in a position of power in India, including well-known prin
Jan. 5, 2011
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No more agonizing over same-sex marriage
We can’t peer into President Obama’s soul, but his statement last week that he is “struggling” with whether to endorse same-sex marriage is open to an unedifying interpretation. Given the president’s support of gay rights in other contexts, his opposition to marriage equality raises the question of whether the struggle Obama referred to is between politics and principle. If so, we hope principle w
Jan. 4, 2011
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Top universities may reopen door to ROTC
With his signature last week, President Obama ended the military’s distasteful policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” In doing away with this discriminatory practice, he also ushered the American armed forces back into the mainstream of American life. One salutary consequence is that some of the nation’s most prestigious universities now are willing to host Reserve Officer Training Corps units on thei
Jan. 4, 2011
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[Kevin Hassett] Snowplow slowdowns might become American way
Europeans have grown accustomed to seeing government workers shut down their countries when provoked. At this time of huge deficits from Washington to the smallest towns, government workers in the U.S. also face significant cutbacks.Americans may have had their first taste of what that will mean.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor David Paterson are both calling for an inve
Jan. 4, 2011
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[Peter Singer] Helping people attain their resolutions
MELBOURNE ― Sometimes we know the best thing to do, but fail to do it. New Year’s resolutions are often like that. We make resolutions because we know that it would be better for us to lose weight, or get fit, or spend more time with our children. The problem is that a resolution is generally easier to break than it is to keep. That is why, by the end of January, most people have already abandoned
Jan. 4, 2011
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[Trudy Rubin] Russia: ‘Rule of law’ or ‘dictatorship of law’
When Dmitry Medvedev became president of Russia two years ago he pledged to combat “legal nihilism,” the disrespect for law that feeds corruption and backwardness in his country.Any hope that Medvedev might behave differently from his mentor, and Russia’s real ruler ― Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ― has been doused by the biggest show trial since the days of the Soviet Union. A week ago, the forme
Jan. 4, 2011
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[Matthew Lynn] Biggest financial decision in 2011 is European
What’s the biggest financial decision facing Europe in 2011? Easy. The choice of a new president of the European Central Bank.When Jean-Claude Trichet steps down from the post in October, the leading candidates to succeed him will be Bundesbank President Axel Weber and the governor of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi.Neither is the right man. Weber would be intolerable to the peripheral euro countr
Jan. 4, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] Our hopes in the Year of the Rabbit
The Year of the Rabbit is especially meaningful to Korean people. For example, the rabbit symbolizes the destiny of Korea located among historically aggressive countries. We believe the Korean Peninsula resembles the shape of a rabbit and Koreans are docile and suave like a rabbit, precariously surviving among ferocious predators. Historically, Koreans have not been able to lead a serene, reclusiv
Jan. 4, 2011
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Overcoming year of political disappointment
The past year was one of political disappointment in Japan as the government failed to make breakthroughs in resolving crucial economic and diplomatic problems. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Democratic Party of Japan should reflect on what went wrong, set clear goals that will capture the minds of people and mobilize every possible resource to realize them. The nation’s economic difficulties, t
Jan. 3, 2011
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[Jacob S. Hacker and Daniel Markovits] Giving Pledge campaign for commoners
The tax bill passed last month perpetuates the huge unfunded giveaways to the rich that have for a generation increasingly divided our nation. Rebuilding the American middle class requires tackling this growing divide head-on. If our politicians won’t or can’t, then ordinary Americans must and can.Those who believe the tax deal gives too much to the top should devote at least some of their tax cut
Jan. 3, 2011
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Debt restructuring key to recovery
NEW YORK ― The time has come for New Year’s resolutions, a moment of reflection. When the last year hasn’t gone so well, it is a time for hope that the next year will be better.For Europe and the United States, 2010 was a year of disappointment. It’s been three years since the bubble broke, and more than two since Lehman Brothers’ collapse. In 2009, we were pulled back from the brink of depression
Jan. 3, 2011
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[Carl Leubsdorf] Why wait for 2011? Your future headlines today
A year ago, we predicted that Texas Gov. Rick Perry would beat Bill White for re-election and that Congress would pass President Barack Obama’s health care bill. But we failed to see that a lagging economic recovery would mean Republicans would win back the U.S. House and make big Senate gains.Undaunted, we tackle 2011:January: Fox News announces that Sarah Palin’s son, Track, will participate in
Jan. 3, 2011
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[Andrew Cohen] Jury’s still out on justice in 2010
Perhaps the simplest thing to say about the law in 2010 is this: Never in America were so many judged by so few with such inconclusive results.As our population rose, and Americans filed 100 million or so lawsuits, the role of the courts somehow shrank in our lives. Dozens of federal judgeships remained empty throughout the year, the victim of partisan bickering on Capitol Hill. State judicial sys
Jan. 3, 2011
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[Naomi Wolf] Keeping rape accusers anonymous is harmful to women
NEW YORK ― As Swedish prosecutors’ sex-crime allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange play out in the international media, one convention of the coverage merits serious scrutiny. We know Assange by name. But his accusers ― the two Swedish women who have brought the complaints against him ― are consistently identified only as “Miss A” and “Miss W,” and their images are blurred.News orga
Jan. 3, 2011
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A new threat emerges from the financial chaos
An era of high inflation is coming. China has raised its interest rates for the second time since mid-October. This move has been made to counter the country’s fastest-growing inflation rate in more than two years. Additional fiscal moves are expected as China is currently battling against various economic bubbles.In spite of Chinese officials’ efforts to curb real estate speculation, property pri
Jan. 2, 2011
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The EPA starts to act on climate change threat
The Clean Air Act turned 40 this year, as did the Environmental Protection Agency, which was created to enforce that new law and others Congress adopted to reduce all types of pollution. But it has taken this many years for the EPA to begin flexing its regulatory muscles to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the principle culprit linked to climate change.For many years the agency claimed that the
Jan. 2, 2011
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[Zhang Monan] China needs to manage national wealth better
The global financial crisis has offered China a good opportunity to review its ability to manage its increasing national wealth. During the past three decades China has developed into the world’s largest foreign reserves holder and net capital exporter from a country that lacked reserves and foreign investment. The country has changed from being a debtor to become the world’s second largest credit
Jan. 2, 2011
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[DAVID IGNATIUS] Warfare and technology of the future
WASHINGTON ― A light-bulb moment for me last year was hearing a Chinese defense expert named Dingli Shen in Shanghai talk about the future of warfare. No, he wasn’t expressing a pipe dream about building a blue-water navy to challenge U.S. dominance in the Pacific. Instead, he was talking about the irrelevance of traditional land and sea power in the dawning age of combat ― where weapons will incl
Jan. 2, 2011
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[Ann Woolner] As in sex, WikiLeaks chief tests limits of press
For better and for worse, Julian Assange pushes limits. In his work life and his sex life, he stands at the border dividing legal conduct from criminality, though it’s not clear which side of that border he occupies. U.S. officials are looking for a way to prosecute him for publishing secrets while women in Sweden say he crossed the line between consensual romps and rape. Mainstream journalists sa
Jan. 2, 2011