Should the government require companies to label food that contains genetically modified organisms? Last November, California voters rejected a ballot initiative that would require such labeling, but bills that would do so were recently introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate. Invoking “the right to know,” a lot of people support those bills. In the abstract, the argument for compulsory labeling seems exceedingly powerful. But there is a risk that a compulsory label for GM food would confus

Recently, South Korea was disgraced by two embarrassing incidents. One is the cancellation of the SAT exam for the entire country because a considerable number of prospective test takers were allegedly exposed to some of the questions that had been obtained illegally. The other is the accusation that a presidential spokesman sexually harassed a young intern in Washington, D.C. during President’s Park’s recent visit to the States. Culturally speaking, these two unfortunate incidents stem from a K

The United Nations Security Council has made a wise decision to create an ambitious African stabilization mission for Mali. To succeed, however, this mission will need to draw lessons from the other side of the continent, where African peacekeepers have had notable results pacifying Somalia. Their experience suggests how an effective partnership between African nations and external powers, such as the U.S. and European Union, can create the space for promising political solutions. Mali is like S

WASHINGTON ― The rocket strikes that a militant Islamist group recently fired from the Egyptian Sinai into the Israeli city of Eilat served as yet another reminder of how delicate bilateral relations remain two years after Egypt’s revolution. Terrorist activity could easily cause a crisis on the border, with the potential to trigger an unwanted confrontation that would threaten the peace treaty that normalized bilateral relations in 1979. To avoid such an outcome, Israel and Egypt must take conv

Would you like to build your own gun? There are plenty of ways to do so, legal and otherwise. Last week, a group called Defense Distributed offered you a new one: It published instructions for creating a plastic firearm using a 3-D printer. One guy even fired a real bullet with it. Not long afterward, the U.S. State Department demanded that the group take the blueprints down, alleging that they may violate export-control laws. Defense Distributed complied, but not before at least 100,000 people

I’m an immigration lawyer by profession. It makes its way into the conversation every month or so, either directly (as when I’m pleading with my conservative friends to realize that branding someone “illegal” is a political death wish) or indirectly (as when I use examples from my own life to point out how hypocritical the left is ― and has always been ― about human rights.) That column I wrote comparing the young Pakistani girl shot through the head by the Taliban to condom crusader Sandra Fluk

When the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in December 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to restore growth and inflation through what is now known as Abenomics. This comprised three arrows ― monetary policy, fiscal policy and structural reforms. The monetary policy arrow caught the most attention, with the change in the stance of the Bank of Japan that aimed to push inflation to 2 percent a year through massive quantitative easing. Given the current misgivings in the West about more

President Ma Ying-jeou sat at the head of large conference table in his presidential office, and inscribed on the wall behind him was the name of his nation: Republic of China. Beside that, in parentheses and smaller letters, was acknowledgment that he was actually speaking from the island of Taiwan. Ma was participating in a teleconference, addressing an audience at Stanford University and other U.S. locations.Ma, like every Taiwanese leader for the last 60 years, clings to the conviction that

The chemical and fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, where at least 15 were killed and more than 200 injured a few weeks ago hadn’t been fully inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1985. (A partial inspection by a different agency in 2011 resulted in $5,250 in fines.)OSHA and its state partners have a total of 2,200 inspectors charged with ensuring the safety of more than 8 million workplaces employing 130 million workers. That comes to about one inspector

The best way to prevent miscarriages of justice is to let the law be what it is. This is what Shen Deyong, executive vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, says in a signed article commenting on several verdicts that were overturned recently. In one of them, a villager called Zhao Yanjin in North China’s Hebei province was wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment for hiring someone to kill a child in 2001. She was held in custody for a total of 10 years until she was acquitted early this ye

The People’s Verdict is in. And the people have delivered their mandate to Malaysia’s ruling party Barisan Nasional to run the federal government for another five years.The margin of 133 to 89 signifies the close fight between the Barisan and Pakatan Rakyat. There will have to be serious soul-searching from both sides for the real reasons for the results, especially when they fall short of their own expectations.Be that as it may, the 44-seat majority is a comfortable enough margin for any gover

Almsgiving should be encouraged insofar as it serves its intended purpose, i.e. to help the poor and the needy, and it simply must not be taken for granted. Refusal to give change to someone who asks for it is sometimes justified if the potential giver knows the bum has a rich, big-spender uncle or suspects that the money may eventually go to a “big brother” to finance his bad habits. On the other hand, it must be considered “bad form,” or something worse, if the bum, or his big brother, attacks

LAHORE ― Pakistan’s moment of political truth is fast approaching. On May 11, some 40-50 million voters will elect a new national assembly. The outcome, preceded by a spike in extremist violence, is likely to reverberate far and wide.Pakistan’s homegrown terrorist groups know that the country is at a tipping point, and are attacking candidates and voters who favor a secular state. Hundreds of people have already been killed, and more will undoubtedly die before Election Day, targeted because, if

A bill proposing to give the same investigative power as judicial police officers to public officials in charge of early childhood education and care has been shelved due to pressure from operators of pre-kindergarten institutions.According to news reports, one of the 13 lawmakers who signed up to the bill has withdrawn his name just because owners of pre-school facilities in his district threatened to campaign against him in the next election.Under the law on the operation of the National Assem

An audio file uploaded to YouTube last weekend has clearly shown where the government should direct its economic democratization campaign.The short clip, lasting less than three minutes, recorded a phone conversation from three years ago between a young sales manager of Namyang Dairy Products, the largest company in the domestic dairy market, and an older local distributor of its products.The conversation was about the company’s attempt to unload onto the distributor a larger amount of products

NEW YORK ― The United States Supreme Court recently began deliberations in a case that highlights a deeply problematic issue concerning intellectual-property rights. The court must answer the following question: Can human genes ― your genes ― be patented? Put another way, should someone essentially be permitted to own the right, say, to test whether you have a set of genes that imply a higher than 50 percent probability of developing breast cancer?To those outside the arcane world of intellectua

NEWPORT BEACH ― After years of tweaks, Japan has now initiated a major shift in its policy paradigm, with reactions ranging from great optimism that the country may finally be lifted out of a quarter-century of economic stagnation, to concerns that the authorities’ dramatic change of course may in fact end up making things worse. But, while debate naturally focuses on Japan’s economic, financial, and political maneuvers, the tipping point could well lie abroad.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s new gov

Judging by their giddy rally today, markets in Malaysia are beyond relieved that the country’s general elections are over. A win for the incumbent Barisan Nasional coalition, whose main party has led Malaysia since independence, appeared to promise continuity and stability. Prime Minister Najib Razak adopted a humble tone after the bitterly fought campaign, calling for “national reconciliation.” Elections in Asia, however, often prove less than decisive when the margin of victory is narrow and t

This past week the College Board, which administers the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test, canceled the May administration of the test for the entire country of South Korea, and only for South Korea. The rest of the world took the test as scheduled. While the exact reasons were not explicitly described, an email communiqu to the applicants stated that it appeared likely that some prospective test takers here had already been exposed to some of the questions. Behind this delicate description is the f

The wreckage caused by China’s great, juddering slowdown continues to spread far beyond the country’s shores. Although most commodities enjoyed a bounce on May 3, after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, the plunge in their prices over the past few months suggests the past decade’s rally is truly broken. For those of us not in the mining industry, this is actually good news ― one of the best signs yet that the global economy is returning to normal. China’s voracious demand for every conc