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East Asia
Senior Korean diplomat found unconscious with brain bleed in Singapore
One of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s key staffers has collapsed with an apparent brain bleed while the president and state executives were in Singapore for this year’s annual ASEAN Summit. Moon broke the news on Friday. He said Kim Eun-young, the director-general of the South Asia and Pacific Foreign…
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East Asia
Turning to Religion: Indonesia’s Widodo Plays the Islamic Card
Back in late 2009, a former military colleague of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was asked whether Indonesia would see the emergence of a new and more dynamic leader now that Yudhoyono was entering a second and mandated final term with nothing to lose and the economy riding the crest…
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South East Asia
Singapore and Populism
A newspaper columnist who deigned to lecture government ministers for speaking over the head of common folk was, in turn, chided for appealing to populism that is anathema to the ruling People’s Action Party, as it smacks of politics of free lunches. “Ministers, please speak plainly to people” was the…
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East Asia
Summit Misdirection: Trump’s North Korea Ploy to Tackle Iran
US President Donald Trump’s summit meeting on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and his administration’s reversal of the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran negotiated under former President Barack Obama are being treated as separate matters. In this article, I suggest that the two events are related. Trump cares far more about…
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East Asia
Books to Read
Along with the last decade’s global trend of liberal retreat and authoritarian ascent, and as authoritarian states — China and Russia in particular — vigorously try to expand their influence across the globe, a new notion of “sharp power” has recently begun to attract attention. This refers to the ability…
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Business
Next election coming in 2020, is it a threat to Mongolia’s reviving economy?
Ulaanbaatar — The state budget for 2019, approved by the parliament earlier this month, sees increases in public expenditure, with higher allocation of funds to be spent on wage and pension benefits, and infrastructure projects- mostly construction of schools and kindergartens. These moves – which the finance minister was quick…
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East Asia
South Koreans overuse antibiotics: World Health Organization
Antibiotic consumption is higher in South Korea, compared with most other members of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, according to a report revealed Monday. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) report on an overview of consumption of antibiotics around the world shows that South Korea used 27.68 defined…
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East Asia
K-Trend: Finished Korean college exam? Time for cosmetic ops
With Korea’s annual College Scholastic Ability Test for high school students and others wishing to go to universities set for this Thursday, many of those sitting tests are likely to have a common post-exam agenda ― getting their looks perked up with cosmetic surgery. The seasonal trend has been…
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East Asia
China always on the way to improve business environment
Improvement of the business environment is an on-going process, and there is always room for things to become better, Chinese President Xi Jinping remarked in a speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). Enterprises from around the world are tying the knot in…
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East Asia
Heads of int’l organizations hail China’s commitment to opening up
Heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) spoke highly of China’s tremendous achievements in reform and opening up on Monday, saying that China’s efforts to expand opening up and safeguard free trade injected strong confidence and development impetus into world economy.…
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