• Risky turnabout

    Cautious approach needed over DTI rule change The government has opened a Pandora’s box in a desperate bid to revitalize the dormant real estate market. However, the decision to ease debt-to-income (DTI) regulations on mortgages might be a risky choice that could devastate the already-sagging economy. The proposed change was…

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  • Kickoff of primaries

    Ideas, views, characters should be fully verified With less than five months to go before the presidential election, two major parties have just begun their primaries. About a month later, both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) will decide who will be their respective…

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  • Who will speak for Rohingyas?

    The military junta in Myanmar has been courted by the West in its quest to encourage the democratization process in this bastion of tyranny. However, it is primordial that respect of human rights, especially the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority should remain high on the international agenda. The Rohingyas…

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  • Ominous rumblings in North Korea

    Strange things are happening in North Korea, which is nothing new. This time, however, developments apparently reflect divisions within the leadership of the isolated totalitarian regime. Conceivably, this could spark a renewed Korean War. Ri Yong-ho, a powerful military figure and until recently a close ally of young North Korea…

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  • Column

    What’s unknowable about N. Korea

    As the inner group of the new North Korean leadership is inaccessible, it is impossible to know how and what decisions are made in the North. We only learn about them after they are officially announced. We struggle to understand what led to the decisions and to figure out what…

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  • Column

    Arab Spring: good news

    The good news about last weekend’s election in Libya, as relayed by the Western media, was that the “Islamists” were defeated and the Good Guys won. The real good news was that democracy in the Arab world is still making progress, regardless of whether the voters choose to support secular…

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  • Escalating suspicion

    FTC should uncover truth of CD rate scandal Ripples from the suspected certificates of deposit (CD) rate-rigging scandal are spreading. Consumer groups are poised to lodge class-action lawsuits, saying many of the allegations revealed so far are suspicious enough to believe that banks and brokerage houses colluded to fix three-month…

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  • Column

    Bangladesh people hit hard with commodity price hike in Ramadan

    Dhaka–With the advent of Ramadan, the religious month of fasting for the Muslim community, the common people of Bangladesh, a Muslim majority country have been hit hard by the price spiral of the essential commodities. Apart from daily essentials, demand of certain commodities like, edible oil, onion, meat, fish, pulses,…

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  • [London Olympics] ③ In the love of Shakespeare

    *Editor’s note: This is the third of six-part stories on the London Olympics When we were studying English literature at university there were two different editions of each Shakespearean work: a deluxe, medium-format British one printed on glossy paper, with additional explanations, on the first pages of which appeared the…

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  • Myanmar Media Law Reform A Key Test of Non-Partisan Press-1

    *Editor’s note: This is the first of two part stories on Myanmar Media Law. Calling your bluff seems to mark the dealings between the  censor and journalists as Myanmar set about to reform its Press system as part of efforts to burnish its democratic credentials. The quasi-democratic government plans to…

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