Among the many things that need to change in the aftermath of the Penn State scandal is Pennsylvania law.First, the commonwealth needs to require that any witness to child abuse must call the police. Second, the statute of limitations for civil claims against child abusers needs to be expanded.Consider that when Mike McQueary saw a 10-year-old boy being raped in the shower at the campus’ Lasch Football Complex, he was under no legal obligation to dial 911 ― much less intervene. According to the

The main opposition Democratic Party has rejected President Lee Myung-bak’s proposal that he would seek renegotiation with Washington on a contentious clause in the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement if the DP cooperates in ratifying the trade pact.Lee made the offer at a meeting with leaders of the ruling Grand National Party and the DP on Tuesday. He made a rare visit to the National Assembly to break the impasse over the ratification of the KORUS FTA.He was quoted as saying that “if the Assembly

Korea’s self-employment rate is one of the highest in the OECD. In 2008, self-employment accounted for 31.3 percent of the nation’s total employment, almost double the OECD average of 15.8 percent.In most OECD countries, self-employment rates have been falling since 1990. The higher a country’s per capita GDP, the lower its self-employment rate tends to be.In Korea, self-employment had been on the decline since 1998. In particular, the pace of decline accelerated during the 2008-09 global financ

Terrible things tend to happen when Syrian security officials catch their quarry. Dissidents are detained, tortured and sometimes killed. It is thus disturbing to learn that U.S. and European technology companies are working to help the regime of President Bashar al-Assad monitor Internet traffic to keep tabs on citizens. A Bloomberg News investigation revealed that the Italian company Area SpA has been installing a wide-reaching surveillance system for the Syrians, using equipment from the U.S.

The United Nations report on Iran’s nuclear program released last week should end the debate, if any debate remained, over whether Iran is moving toward acquiring the ability to build a nuclear weapon. In cautious but convincing detail, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency listed evidence that Iran is still conducting research that would lead to an atomic bomb, much of it in secret military laboratories. And Iran has refused to answer the U.N.’s questions or allow U.N. inspectors to see

U.S. President Barack Obama said at the Group of 20 meeting in Cannes, France, earlier this month that he was told that he had just been given a “crash course” on the complexities of European politics. Well, that’s us, the folk who brought you Byzantine. We do have the habit of talking about one thing while doing another, like your mother peeling potatoes at the sink while telling you to hurry up and provide her with some grandchildren. And, often, the thing we’re doing is not what it appears, a

It is again the time for political regrouping. The half century of the Republic of Korea’s modern political history has recorded repeated realignment of political parties ahead of major elections, even during the military-backed authoritarian rule. But history also shows that hurriedly assembled new parties have not done well in elections. This time, there is an unusual factor. Parties are scrambling to regroup after reading the writing on the wall in the mayoral by-election in Seoul last month.

The Ahn Cheol-soo phenomenon took a new turn as the potential presidential candidate made a commitment for a 150 billion won ($135 million) donation to charity Tuesday. His surprise action encouraged his supporters in the vast ranks of Korean society and further alerted political parties. The donation makes clearer his intent to enter the 2012 presidential race.In a press conference at the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, where he is the dean, Ahn

The latest round of test results are in for America’s shoolchildren, this one from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and there is the usual good and bad news.American kids, for example, are doing better in math than they were in 1990. On the other hand, the gap between white and minority students remains large ― except for Asian students, who got their own category this year and beat everybody.But I noticed something that never seems to change much. Although girls do about as well

The college class of 2010 now has a dubious distinction. Its graduates who had student loans owed a record-high average of $25,250, up 5.2 percent from the previous year, according to a new report from the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit advocacy group.Last month, President Obama announced a plan to make it a little easier for 1.6 million college graduates to repay their government loans, recognizing the drag that $1 trillion in student debt is placing on the economy.In the early 1990s, mos

JERUSALEM ― Last spring, Israel’s former spy chief, Meir Dagan, said bombing Iran would be “a stupid idea” for Israel. It would mean regional war and give Iran “the best possible reason to continue its nuclear program.”Those words hung in the air during an extraordinary media debate here over the last two weeks that preceded the release of a U.N. report giving new evidence of Iranian plans to build nuclear weapons. The debate laid out details on a topic rarely discussed here in public: Should th