There was a time when all one had to worry about from video games were ― for parents ― their affects on children’s homework and eyesight, possible violent content, their cost and ― for game makers ― pirated game cassettes.Those good old days were officially over yesterday (May 2) as video game giant Sony apologized for a security breach that caused the loss of some 77 million accounts’ personal in

The prosecution’s conclusion on Tuesday that North Korea was to blame for the paralysis of the computer network of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation is a chilling reminder of the pariah regime’s determination and capability to launch cyber attacks against the South. The prosecutors defined the North’s hacking into the NACF’s computer system as a new form of cyber terrorism. Before t

Last Saturday, we called for drastic reform of the Financial Supervisory Services as the powerful regulatory agency exuded the stench of corruption. We were not alone in smelling the odor. President Lee Myung-bak did as well. On Wednesday, Lee made a surprise visit to the FSS to express his fury and disappointment over the regulator’s failure to prevent irregularities at financial companies and FS

Greece? Been there. Ireland? Done that. Portugal? Got the T-shirt. For the past year, countries sharing the euro have been going bust one by one.So where’s next? Plenty of people will point the finger at Spain. Some at Italy. A few single out Belgium, a country with high debts, and no government.But they should be looking somewhere else: France.It is increasingly politically unstable, its debt pos

The dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden after a 40-minute gun battle in a Pakistani hill station mansion is, as President Obama rightly said, a triumph of justice. It is a symbolic and historic milestone in the war on terror, marking the end of a frustrating, decade-long manhunt.By continuing to pursue bin Laden years after 9/11, the United States sought to demonstrate that it has staying power an

When President Obama told the media why he had released his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate, all I could think of was Pakistan.Yes, Pakistan, where no conspiracy theory is too bizarre and you’ll hear that 9/11 was a Zionist plot ― and Osama bin Laden a U.S. agent. Ordinary Pakistanis turn to conspiracy theories to explain the overwhelming problems that face them. But those unhinged theories d

VIENNA ― In a study released in early April, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovi, reported that 57 journalists are currently in prison in Turkey, mostly on the basis of the country’s antiterrorism laws. With 11 more Turkish journalists also facing charges, the total number could soon double the records of Iran and China,

One of the most important tasks for a diplomat is to settle disputes and resolve conflicts through negotiations. But what if he himself should cause a dispute or a conflict, as a former ambassador to an African country may have done?The case in point involved the ambassador who recently returned home after his assignment in the Ivory Coast. Among the items he brought with him from the African coun

The nation’s holdings of foreign currency surpassed the $300 billion mark at the end of April. Should the nation confront any financial crisis in the future, these bulging state coffers will be of great help in cushioning the blow.To hold $300 billion in foreign reserves is nothing short of a sea change for a nation that has been exposed to the threat of sovereign bankruptcy on two occasions durin

You’ve no doubt been hearing the harrowing warnings about what might happen if Congress refuses to lift the federal government’s debt ceiling, as some conservative Republicans have threatened.If the federal government gets anywhere near defaulting on its debts, President Obama warned this month, that “could plunge the world economy back into recession.”Even House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, O

When President Obama visited El Salvador in March, he offered an acute analysis of the danger represented by homegrown criminal gangs and international narcotics cartels. This is a shared problem with a shared responsibility, the president declared.Nice speech, but where’s the beef? The unrestricted flow of drugs into the United States via Central America ― or Mexico, or the Caribbean ― represents