It is natural that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, now in his second week in office, does not have a full grasp of the bounds of his duties and powers, let alone the scope of his public mission. So, he needs to be reminded that while Seoul is the political, economic and cultural center of the Republic of Korea, it is still just one of the 16 major divisions of the country and that there is a categoric...

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...

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 t...

BEIRUT (AP) ― Syrian troops stormed a restive neighborhood in Homs on Monday, kicking in doors and making house-to-house arrests in an area that has spiraled out of government control after nearly a week of deadly assaults, activists said. The regime is scrambling to clear out Baba Amr, a major center of resistance and reprisal, as Damascus faces potential fallout from the Arab League for defyin...

MOSCOW (AP) ― The Russian historian had always been open about his interest in the dead and eagerly described how he loved to rummage through cemeteries, studying grave stones to uncover the life stories behind them. What he failed to mention, according to police, was that he had dug up 29 bodies and taken them back to his apartment, where he dressed them in women’s clothes scavenged from graves...

WASHINGTON (AP) ― A record number of Americans ― 49.1 million ― are poor, based on a new census measure that for the first time takes into account rising medical costs and other expenses. The numbers released Monday are part of a first-ever supplemental poverty measure aimed at providing a fuller picture of poverty. Although considered experimental, they promise to stir fresh debate over social ...

BEIJING (AFP) ― Everybody knows the Oscars. From Beijing to Paris and New York to Sao Paolo, the golden statuette honoring the best movies in the world is a symbol of the “soft power” prowess of the United States. China’s Golden Rooster awards, however, come and go without much mention ― a potent reminder of the film industry’s difficulty in competing with Hollywood despite a push to gain more i...

Foreign visitors to Korea and foreign residents chose PyeongChang’s successful Olympic bid as the biggest contribution to enhancing the country’s brand this year, a survey showed Tuesday. The e-mail survey of 514 Korean and expat opinion leaders and foreign visitors was conducted by Corea Image Communication Institute from Oct. 10 to Nov. 17. Of the 211 foreigners who participated in the survey...