Two young passengers on Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Metro recently got themselves into trouble for engaging in oral sex on the train. The action of the Internet pals ― he a college sophomore and she a high school senior ― was filmed and posted on Facebook by a Hong Kong tourist. The video quickly went viral and was shared by tens of thousands on the Internet within 24 hours. The next day it was the front-page story on a local daily and soon after that the pair reported to the police. They are now facing

When all is said and done, ASEAN needs a missile-like political will for its ambitious plan of economic integration. Simply gathering together, hands locked and dressed in the host’s designed costumes and issuing a joint statement, is no longer sufficient these days. ASEAN has to produce tangible outcomes to demonstrate an ability to achieve stated objectives within a given timeframe, even a flexible one. ASEAN citizens must also have confidence that when the much-awaited ASEAN Community (AC) co

A terrorist attack is like a national Rorschach test. Everybody sees in it what they want ― usually something that proves a point they’ve been making all along.Even before the Tsarnaev brothers were identified as the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings, speculation about the unknown attackers fell mostly into two camps: They could be Muslim jihadists, or they could be American anti-tax extremists. Guess which suggestion came from liberals and which from conservatives.Once real suspects

LOS ANGELES ― Since Syria’s civil war erupted, its large chemical-weapons arsenal has haunted the conflict zone and beyond. Now Israel says that chemical weapons have been used by the Syrian regime.Escalating fears have driven U.S. President Barack Obama to declare repeatedly that any Syrian use or transfer of chemical weapons would cross a “red line,” for which President Bashar al-Assad’s regime would be “held accountable.” But the practical implications of this warning remain vague.As dangerou

“Work authorization is not meant to get you rich, it’s to let you live,” said an Egyptian asylum-seeker who fled to the United States after a radical group beat him and tried to kidnap his wife and daughter. After fleeing persecution in their home countries, asylum-seekers like this man in New Jersey face a new type of maltreatment in the United States: The U.S. government won’t let them work during what is often a drawn-out asylum process.As a result, vulnerable people who come to this country

The involvement of two ethnic Chechens in the Boston Marathon bombing came as a brutal reminder of the wars that ravaged the Russian republic more than a decade ago. Less understood is that they aren’t over. Vladimir Putin said when he first ran for president in 2000 that his “historic mission” was to resolve the situation in the North Caucasus. To do so, he oversaw a second war in Chechnya, already devastated by Russia’s failed attempt to subdue the republic in 1994-1996. Instead of solving the

Christine Lagarde wants her staff at the International Monetary Fund to examine what might happen to the global economy when central banks begin to raise interest rates. She’s wasting their time. If Japan has taught us anything, it’s that slashing rates to zero and beyond is a lot easier than returning them to normalcy. Japan is on its sixth central-bank governor since its bubble burst in 1990, and like his predecessors, Haruhiko Kuroda is doubling down on quantitative easing. Why? Politicians,

MUNICH ― Last summer, the financier George Soros urged Germany to agree to the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, calling on the country to “lead or leave.” Now he says that Germany should exit the euro if it continues to block the introduction of Eurobonds.Soros is playing with fire. Leaving the eurozone is precisely what the newly founded “Alternative for Germany” party, which draws support from a wide swath of society, is demanding.Crunch time is fast approaching. Cyprus is al

Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to have abandoned its desire to cultivate friendship with its neighbors, notably Korea and China. To the chagrin of the victims of Japan’s imperialist expansion, Abe came near to denying Japan’s invasion of neighboring Asian countries when he said on Tuesday that there was “no clear definition of an invasion internationally and academically.”Abe went on to say that what happened in international relations might look different, depen

On Tuesday, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office disbanded its Central Investigation Department, the most powerful department with a staff of elitist prosecutors. Its abolishment went down in the history of the nation’s prosecution as an event nothing short of epochal.Its predecessor, the Central Investigation Bureau, which was inaugurated 52 years ago, changed its name to the Central Investigation Department in 1981. Then the department was given a strengthened mission to investigate corruption case

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expected a sharp debate at home when he said his country wanted to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He may not have anticipated a sharp debate in the U.S. After all, rarely does Washington have the pleasure of opening new trade negotiations when the potential benefits are so heavily stacked in the U.S.’s favor. Why so? Because Japan’s nontariff barriers ― protecting major sectors of the economy, including services, agriculture and selected manufactures ― sta

WASHINGTON ― John Maynard Keynes once said that words should be used aggressively, “for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.” That’s a starting point for an appreciation of Mervyn King, who will retire soon as governor of the Bank of England and who has displayed the quirky intellectual passion of Keynes himself. Like Keynes, King is a theoretical economist who turned to public policy. He helped guide the British central bank for the past 22 years, first as chief economist, then d

Four years into a so-called recovery and we’re still below recession levels in every important respect except the stock market.A measly 88,000 jobs were created in March, and total employment remains some 3 million below its pre-recession level. Labor-force participation is at its lowest level since 1979.The recovery isn’t just losing steam. It never had much steam to begin with.That’s because so much of our debate over economic policy has been beside the point.On the one side have been Keynesia

PARIS ― The details revealed so far in the Boston Marathon bombing case are strikingly similar to those of a high-profile case in France last year. Both exemplify the modus operandi of today’s young jihadist.Naturally, it all starts with an immersion in Islamic extremism. The North Caucasus region where the Boston suspects spent their childhood ― a region where there has been a great deal of separatist violence since the collapse of the Soviet Union ― ended up being dominated by a radical Saudi

NEW DELHI ― The sea of humanity besieging the Shahbag area in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, for the last two months, has had an unusual demand ― unusual, at least, for the Indian subcontinent. The demonstrators have been clamoring for justice for the victims of the genocidal massacres of 1971 that led to the former East Pakistan’s secession from Pakistan.The demonstrations have been spontaneous, disorganized, and chaotic, but also impassioned and remarkably peaceful. Many of the several thousa

A bill proposing to extend Korean workers’ retirement age to 60 is likely to pass the National Assembly this month. The bill has already won approval from lawmakers on the parliament’s Environment and Labor Committee and will likely pass a floor vote during the April 29-30 plenary session.If enacted, the reform bill will make it compulsory for employers to set the minimum retirement age of their workers at 60. Currently, the relevant law simply recommends that companies set their contractual ret

The government’s drive to raise tax revenue by shining a light on the underground economy is expected to get a boost from a group of citizens committed to bringing tax evaders to justice.Today people from some 150 civic organizations, including consumer groups and associations of self-employed businesspeople, are to launch a watchdog group to combat the shadow economy. Promoters of the grassroots movement say tip-offs on tax evasion have been pouring in from whistle-blowers since they announced

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced yesterday that it was delaying a plan to allow passengers to carry pocketknives, hockey sticks and golf clubs aboard airplanes. With terrorism prominently in the news ― and opposition surging from flight attendants and others in the airline industry ― this decision was perhaps inevitable. It’s also wrongheaded. To a public that has gone along with relinquishing hand lotions, bottled water and other seemingly innocuous items, it may seem a

NEW YORK ― Children are every country’s most vital resource. This is true not just morally, but also economically. Investing in the health, education, and skills of children offers the highest economic returns to a country. A new study by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) shows which high-income countries are doing well when it comes to making these investments ― and which are doing poorly.The report, “Child Well-Being in Rich Countries,” takes a holistic view of the conditions of children in th

WARSAW, Poland ― Simcha Rotem was stooped, his head bowed showing tiny wisps of white hair as he stood at a podium between two black menorahs spewing towering gas flames.Behind him a new, 40-foot-tall black stone frieze showed armed guerilla fighters, their faces locked in determined grimaces. And before him two dozen TV cameras recorded his every word as Rotem declared: “We knew we had no chance. Should we start the uprising? Those are the doubts I live with every day.”Rotem was a featured spea