WASHINGTON ― On June 17, at his first press conference as Iran’s President-elect, Hassan Rowhani broke little new ground in the Islamic Republic’s relations with the West. On nuclear policy, he said that the “era of suspension is over”: Iran will not accept the suspension of uranium enrichment in upcoming negotiations but will seek to make its nuclear activities more transparent in order to build international confidence. Moreover, Iran would welcome direct negotiations with the United States if

The yuan keeps rising, inter-bank rates have shot up, and foreign exchange purchases have slumped, such conflicting trends have caused worries among puzzled China watchers. But are such fears justifiable?The yuan hit new highs on Monday in terms of the official central parity rate, rising to 6.1598 against the U.S. dollar before edging down on Tuesday. It has risen by more than 2 percent since the start of this year.While the economic fundamentals are out of line with the currency appreciation m

Talk of China’s future leaders usually revolves around those born in the early 1960s, such as Guangdong party boss Hu Chunhua and Chongqing chief Sun Zhengcai.But lately, the focus has been shifting to the “liu wu hou” cohort ― those born in or after 1965 ― as more emerge in key Communist Party and government posts.There are 15 now in the party committees governing China’s provinces and municipalities, making them a minority among the 400-plus provincial leaders nationwide.Another four post-1965

It’s the same old script, year after year. Right around this time, the clear blue skies in parts of our country and a few other countries in the region will turn grey.It is that time of the year when forests are being cleared the easy way by small-time farmers and big-time plantation companies.And so the fires rage on and, aided by the monsoonal wind patterns, bring unhealthy pollutants into our lives. The haze is no respector of geographical or international boundaries. It simply goes where the

As China has risen, the U.S. has grappled with the task of coming to terms with this constantly more prominent reality on the international scene. This has not been a smooth process, indeed it has been marked by many disagreements and considerable friction. From time to time, various negative features of China’s emergence have been emphasized in the U.S. and other Western countries, such as its record on democracy and human rights.Official agencies have led the criticism, and, taking their cue f

Cheong Wa Dae has recently told the Cabinet ministries to temporarily halt the process of screening candidates for the top posts of the public institutions affiliated with them.What prompted the Presidential Office to stop the process was a growing outcry against former Finance Ministry officials taking top jobs at private and public financial institutions.Former officials of the Ministry of Finance are called “Mofia” here for their mob-like cronyism. The latest examples include Lim Young-rok, a

A set of toughened sex crime laws went into effect Wednesday, ushering in big changes in meting out punishment to sex offenders, protecting traumatized victims and overseeing ex-convicts.The most significant and welcome change is the abolition of the personal accusation system that made the prosecution of sex offenders impossible without the victims first filing a complaint.Under the old system, prosecutors could not bring charges against sex offenders if the victims chose not to file accusation

Hasan Rowhani’s victory in the first round of the presidential elections in Iran is presented in the international media mostly as an ignominious defeat to the hard-line clerics and Iran’s supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Indeed, prima facie, Rowhani’s victory seems as a ray of hope for a change in Iran’s domestic and international policy. However, a closer look at the “democratic” procedure that took place in Iran last weekend and at its implications suggests that Khamenei and the hard-lin

Recently South Korea has acceded to a number of international conventions covering children’s rights, adoption issues and international child abduction. In March the U.N. convention on child abduction was signed and in May the convention on international adoption. And yet despite all of this seeming advancement, the decisions of the South Korean judiciary still must meet international standards required before these treaties will be effective in practice.This is because all of these treaties hav

Are Shinzo Abe’s days as Japan’s prime minister numbered? Many will dismiss this question as premature or naive ― perhaps both. The architect of “Abenomics” boasts a higher approval rating than any of the eight previous Japanese prime ministers. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party is heading to a big victory in next month’s upper-house election. Supporters are convinced he will use that mandate to end Japan’s 20-year deflationary funk with boldness, creativity and panache. There’s just one problem wi

The election of Hassan Rowhani as Iran’s president has drawn stern warnings, including from the Israeli prime minister, against the hope that his victory signals meaningful change. It’s too soon to know exactly what it signals ― but the result is a welcome surprise and an opportunity that should be cautiously explored. The June 14 vote replaces President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a cartoon extremist who would be funny if he weren’t so frightening, with a more approachable interlocutor. Rowhani isn’t

How do criminals get their guns? Are there observable patterns to gun crime? Who is at the greatest risk of injury, or causing injury to others, from firearm use? Which gun-safety practices are most effective at preventing accidental injury? The answers to these and other basic questions remain difficult and obscure in part thanks to a senseless ban, on the books for a decade, that limits research on gun violence and denies researchers and even police and prosecutors access to federal gun data.

Six months ago, Americans reacted with horror to the slaughter of 20 children and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Suddenly, gun safety legislation was front and center everywhere, including Washington.Then in April, a recalcitrant Senate succumbed to pressure from gun manufacturers and the NRA’s leadership and failed to pass even the most modest measure, a bill to extend background checks to gun shows and Internet sales. The president was angry, the familie

North Korea’s abrupt offer to the United States for high-level talks has left many puzzled on its intentions. In a statement issued by the National Defense Commission on Sunday, the North proposed that the two sides meet to discuss issues of mutual interest, including easing military tension on the Korean Peninsula, replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a permanent peace treaty, and the U.S. vision for a nuclear-free world.The agenda it suggests is nothing new. So what p

The central government is bracing for a long legal battle against the government of South Gyeongsang Province to salvage Jinju Medical Hospital, which the province’s stubborn governor, Hong Joon-pyo, is determined to abolish.Last week, the province’s council, dominated by Hong backers, revised a municipal ordinance to liquidate the 103-year-old medical institution, defying condemnation from the ruling and opposition parties as well as the medical community.The council’s act came about two weeks

Iran’s presidential election presents a paradox. The vote was free enough for Hassan Rohani to score a shocking win and for the favored conservative candidate to finish a dismal third. And yet it was blatantly unfair because hundreds of reformist and pragmatic candidates were blocked from running. For policymakers in the U.S. and Europe, this presents a challenge: How should they respond to this remarkable upset victory for Rohani, who was the eventual candidate of Iranian reformists and is also

WASHINGTON ― What is America’s strategy in the Middle East? That question is more urgent as the Obama administration finally moves to arm the Syrian opposition. The U.S. needs a framework that connects its policy in Syria with what’s happening in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and elsewhere in the region. The administration’s specific rationale for arming the rebels is that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons. But crusades against WMD have a bad history in the Middle East, a

CAMBRIDGE ― The term “currency wars” is a catchy way of saying “competitive devaluation.” In the wake of the sharp fall in the value of the yen over the last six months, owing to the monetary component of Japan’s efforts to jump-start its economy, the issue is expected to feature prominently on the agenda at the G8’s upcoming summit in Northern Ireland. But should it?According to the International Monetary Fund, competitive devaluation occurs when countries are “manipulating exchange rates…to ga

The Syrian conflict began in January 2011 and still continues. The conflicts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya that started around the same time did not last long because the incumbent leaders of the three countries were either killed or resigned and the West (particularly NATO) intervened forcefully, while the non-West (particularly BRICS) did not actively support the incumbent leaders. Since World War II, civil wars have happened more often than international wars. In terms of geographic location, c

Let the geeks, and we use the term endearingly, argue over the changes Apple Inc. announced this week to its mobile operating system. Our focus is on something more prosaic: an advertisement ― and what that ad says about the state of U.S. manufacturing. Apple’s latest slick promotion touts the “Designed by Apple in California” line it includes on its devices (conveniently overlooking the second line, “Assembled in China”). At the end of the ad, a somber voice intones: “This is our signature. And