BRUSSELS ― The recent death in Brussels of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi finally brings to light what lay behind his mysterious two-month disappearance from public life. Ethiopia’s government had strenuously denied rumors of serious ill health caused by liver cancer. Now that the worst has, indeed, proven true, Ethiopia and all of East Africa will need to learn to live without the stabilizing influence of its great dictator-diplomat.Meles was certainly both. Ethiopia has undergone a rema

If Justin Bieber or the Rolling Stones suddenly decided to stage an impromptu concert in a public place somewhere in America without a permit, would the authorities ignore it and shrug it off? Doubtful. Even buskers performing in the New York City subway system can’t play without formal authorization from the city.What about taking such a musical performance into a church? If Jennifer Lopez or Madonna just showed up in a place of worship, stripped down to their skivvies and started dancing aroun

The world’s tobacco merchants are down on Australia after the country’s highest court backed the toughest cigarette-labeling rules anywhere. So far, the focus has been on intellectual-property rights, possible lawsuits by British American Tobacco Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc. and their ilk, and the plight of investors. More attention should be on how many lives will be saved and how much economic output won’t be squandered as other nations follow Australia’s lead. There’s a reason Big Tobacco waged su

Look out, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. A new chapter in maritime history is being written.Last week, the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long anchored in the Icelandic harbor of Skarfabakki after covering the 15,000km distance from Qingdao harbor in six weeks.The brick-colored Xue Long or Snow Dragon is the largest icebreaker in the world that does not run on nuclear power. Nearly 170m from tip to tail, it is 23m wide and can sail through 1.1m of ice at a steady speed of 1.5 knots.The journey, trav

How sad it is to have to read the story of a tagged sex offender having attacked and murdered a woman in her home in Seoul (The Korea Herald, “Ex-con wearing electronic tag arrested for attempted rape, murder”).Let me point out that the only ones to gain from tagging are private security companies who run these programs. The rest of us are left to defend ourselves against the likes of a man named Seo, who has been arrested for this latest crime.Several months ago I wrote in this paper (The Korea

Just last month I made my first visit to Myanmar, a place Rudyard Kipling referred to as “quite unlike any land you know about.”While decades of isolation have helped this century-old observation hold true, on arrival in July I was immediately struck by the vibrancy and a palpable sense of change in the air.The country’s immense potential is reflected in the Asian Development Bank’s most recent analysis, which shows that Myanmar has the potential to follow Asia’s fast-growing economies and expan

Even many who cherish the “original meaning” of the Constitution recognize that provisions drafted in the 18th century must be interpreted in light of changing technology. That is especially true of the 4th Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”When the amendment was adopted, unreasonable searches involved physical trespass. But in 1967 the court ruled that the 4th Amendment was vi

Judging from what Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica recently told me in an extended interview, there is a real possibility that people in his country will soon be able to buy marijuana legally from a state-regulated company that will be in charge of marketing and selling the drug.Mujica, 78, earlier this month submitted a bill to congress that may be the boldest marijuana legalization proposal anywhere in the world. It calls for the state to “take over the control and regulation of activities rela

Renowned linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky once described sports as a contrived opiate for the people; a means of distracting us from important social matters. Well, I always took issue with Chomsky on that matter, considering his opinion a little too extreme and quite frankly, the assertion one who probably was picked last for every team in gym class. Then on Aug. 4, 2012 in a sweltering British pub in Thailand, sitting amongst 100 or so fervent and rather inebriated British football fans

I remember a June evening when three complete strangers separately insisted on showing me their new mobile phones. It was 2007, I was on the subway in New York, and Apple Inc.’s iPhone had just been released. The slick design of Apple’s new device ― and, in particular, its ease of use ― was so compelling, these people could not help but share. Now the multibillion-dollar question confronting a jury in San Jose, California, is whether Samsung Electronics Co. found those elements of the iPhone so