Korea’s ardent, decade-long pursuit of the Winter Olympic Games was rewarded when Jacques Rogge uttered one long-awaited word, “PyeongChang.” Its selection as the venue of the 2018 Winter Games in the South African city of Durban on Wednesday sent not just Korean delegates but all Korean citizens glued to the TV back home into ecstasy.PyeongChang’s win over Munich of Germany and Annecy of France w

Forty years ago this month, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that sleep-deprived resident physicians reading electrocardiograms made twice as many errors as their rested counterparts. Back then, in 1971, there were no limits on the hours that medical residents could be scheduled to work. Thirty-six-hour on-call shifts were the norm.Under new rules that take effect

Self-defense against threats to national security and individual citizens is a core right and duty of all nation-states. No one seriously disagrees. And yet this week, the Mediterranean Sea will once again be the site of a dangerous attack on this basic right.Activists from around the world, seeking to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, plan to launch a flotilla of shi

More than 255,000 women have served in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twenty-one percent of the 2011 graduating class of sailors at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis were women; of the Marines, 17 percent. The Air Force Academy and West Point graduated similar percentages: nearly 20 percent and more than 16 percent, respectively. All told, women account for nearly 15 percent of activ

Dear San Francisco,Will you please get a life? First you passed a law prohibiting the sale of most Happy Meals. Then you set your sights on banning circumcision. Now you’re trying to make it illegal to sell almost every kind of pet, including goldfish, within city limits.In one way, this isn’t entirely surprising. In order to buy a goldfish, you usually need to carry it home in a plastic Ziploc ba

Upon reports of Korea Exchange Bank’s release of huge dividends to its shareholders, a wave of criticism has been hurled at the Texas-based Lone Star Funds, which will collect nearly a half trillion won from its 51 percent share in the bank. Xenophobia again raises its head in some civic quarters. Radical voices ask financial regulators to stop the U.S. buyout fund’s “eat-and-run” business. The Fi

At a time when America’s economy is hurting, Republican presidential hopefuls call for “restoring American greatness.”So why are Republicans in Congress bent on policies that would hasten U.S. decline?America’s strengths ― which made it the unchallenged global leader ― were based on democratic institutions and economic successes. Other nations sought to copy our economic and political systems beca

At periodic intervals, the American body politic has shown a marked susceptibility to messianic fevers. Whenever an especially acute attack occurs, a sort of delirium ensues, manifesting itself in delusions of grandeur and demented behavior.By the time the condition passes and a semblance of health is restored, recollection of what occurred during the interval of illness tends to be hazy. What hap

Bank of America on Wednesday announced an $8.5 billion settlement for investors who bought its toxic mortgage bonds before the housing crash.For the homeowners who took out those toxic mortgages, the settlement delivers … nothing.It’s only natural for Americans to feel disgusted in the aftermath of the real-estate bust. People want more sanctions against those who profited during the boom, more re

KABUL ― A few weeks ago, late on the night that President Obama announced he would be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan faster than the military had wanted, Gen. David Petraeus held a videoconference from Washington with his senior staff, who were assembled in Kabul for their 7:30 a.m. meeting. He assured them their campaign plan was still “doable,” even with fewer numbers over time, and told th

I still remember the moment in my childhood in which I lost all faith in the innocent purity of plants. One day, I was a carefree adolescent at summer camp, exploring the leafy woods with my fellow campers. A couple of days later, I was an illustration for a medical textbook. “The worst case of poison ivy I’ve ever seen!” the camp nurse told the other staffers as she trotted me and my dime-sized b

President Obama’s fiscal policies are a mess. Whatever one thinks of the need for stimulus in a severe recession, it is obvious that running trillion-dollar deficits for years on end is unsustainable. Moreover, his proposals are dishonest. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that his proposed 2012 budget underestimates spending while overestimating revenues.Sadly, the Republicans

Chris Christie should run for president now, assuming he aspires to ever hold that office. The GOP field for 2012 remains wide open, while there is no telling how a 2016 (or later) field could shape up. The economy is the focal point this cycle, so Christie’s reputation as a budget-cutting governor suits the times. And popularity in politics is often fleeting, particularly for a Republican from De

In a world overrun by half-truths and wall-to-wall opinion, the simple words “I don’t know” might very well become the most valuable phrase in any language.There’s plenty of grousing about the lopsided ratio of opinion to fact in our lives. But what irks me more is that these days it seems everyone is obligated to have a point of view on every issue.Last week’s news reports about the Miss USA page

The economic policy of President Lee Myung-bak’s administration sounded more convincing than before when it revised its 2011 economic outlook on Thursday. It lowered its growth target from 5 percent to 4.5 percent and raised its inflation outlook from 3 percent to 4 percent. Simply put, it abandoned its vaunted growth-first policy.Prior to revising its economic management plan for the second half

One senior prosecutor has tendered his resignation in protest against the process of revising the code of criminal procedure currently underway. Several others are offering to follow suit under pressure from disaffected ordinary prosecutors. Even the prosecutor-general is reportedly hinting at his impending resignation.Their action could be justified if the revision bill were to restrict the role

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has finally clarified his hitherto vague “conditions” for resigning his post.At a press conference on Monday, he said he is ready to step down after securing Diet passage of the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011, as well as passage of two bills. One bill concerns special measures to promote renewable energy ― by obliging utilities to buy electricity gene

Thailand’s parliamentary election on Sunday is looking like a continuance of unfinished business. This would be the least helpful scenario for a governance process already muddied in recent elections by military interventions and constitutional tinkering. The opposition Puea Thai party, which leads narrowly in the polls, will relish victory as vindication for its absent putative leader, Thaksin Sh

With the slow progress in global climate negotiations, some developing countries are taking their own climate actions to reduce emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.Of course, their actions will fall far short of what is required, unless the expected funds and technology resulting from the global talks materialize.And unless the developed countries also cut their emissions greatly

Will you really love me? Just one week before the marriage the concerned bride asks the groom (or the groom asks the bride). Not in private, but in public. The bride (or groom) appears before friends and relatives, and pronounces her (or his) expectation of the upcoming marriage with a list of dos and don’ts and past sins. Friends would then wonder what they have said to each other during the cour