TILBURG, the Netherlands ― Two years ago, the leaders of the world’s central banks were considered heroes for their efforts in preventing financial crisis from turning into Great Depression II. Today, however, central banks are being sharply criticized, and their independence is coming under severe pressure in many countries, particularly in the eurozone, as Mario Draghi, the head of the Bank of I

Three days before the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a courageous Pakistani politician was shot dead by one of his guards.The circumstances of the two shootings, of course, were very different. Salman Taseer had infuriated conservative Muslims by criticizing his country’s apostasy law, which prescribes death for insulting Islam. Much of Pakistan’s media made excuses for the killer,

NEW YORK ― The assassination of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province in Pakistan and an outspoken critic of religious extremism, has focused attention on his country’s draconian blasphemy law. Adopted in its present form by General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq’s military dictatorship more than three decades ago, the blasphemy law imposes a mandatory death penalty on anyone convicted of insulting

Reading my recent column, “Seven enigmas of Korea to Westerners,” Ogan Gurel, a medical doctor who had been affiliated with Harvard and Columbia until recently joining Samsung, sent me feedback in which he insightfully compared the Korean enigmas with American culture. As for the first enigma concerning candlelight vigils, Dr. Gurel writes: “There were no candlelight vigils when Ronald Reagan died