North Korea’s state news agency slammed Japan for insisting on the return of abductees as a condition of normalizing ties, accusing its neighbor of going “against the trend” toward the “building of a bright future” in the run-up to an unprecedented summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.“The reactionaries of Japan are hyping the ‘issue of abduction’ which had already been settled,” KCNA said in a commentary published Saturday. “This is just a mean and foolish behavior to stem t

With Facebook confronting calls to do more to protect user privacy as well as existential questions about its purpose in life, the company naturally used its F8 summit last week as an opportunity to cultivate an image as a less creepy presence in our daily lives.No, wait, never mind: Facebook announced it is launching an online dating service. The creatively named Dating application will let Facebook users create special profiles to employ in their quests for love and romance. Users who opt into

Only 24 hours ago I was lamenting the Malaysian political system’s incapability to self-correct after a plunder as brazen as the alleged $4.5 billion looting of 1MDB, a state investment firm. The voters proved me wrong.　By unseating Prime Minister Najib Razak, and handing his Barisan Nasional coalition its first loss of power in six decades, Malaysians have sent a clear and optimistic message: Corruption matters.　But what now? Mahathir Mohamad, the 92-year-old former leader who staged the upset,

Chinese President Xi Jinping was not on the ballot when Malaysians voted for a new government on Wednesday. But he was on election billboards. Although it’s probably not a role that Xi would’ve chosen for himself, China’s influence on Malaysia’s economy has become one of the most bitterly contested issues in a bruising campaign.　 That’s certainly awkward for China, which presents itself as a champion of economic development around the world. Increasingly, though, its vision isn’t shared. In Mala

President Donald Trump has been determined to confront the US’ European allies on every issue of importance, from trade to climate change to the multilateral deal with Iran. As politicians and publics on this side of the Atlantic become increasingly wary, it’s worth asking whether he really wants allies at all.　After the unsuccessful visits of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to Washington, Trump has given Europe another month’s respite from puniti

Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged, acknowledging inflation is close to target without indicating any intention to veer from their gradual path of interest-rate increases.“Inflation on a 12-month basis is expected to run near the committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective over the medium term,” the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday in Washington. “The committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant

Don’t call Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s long-awaited Bitcoin-trading business a full-fledged desk, and don’t expect it to buy and sell Bitcoins, at least at first.The bank, preparing to pioneer a new cryptocurrency market on Wall Street, plans to start small and offer a limited number of derivatives, according to a person briefed on the decisions. It will trade Bitcoin futures in a principal, market-making capacity and will also create non-deliverable forward products. (Yonhap)Wall Street firms be

Toxic levels of pollution leads annually to the early death of an estimated 7 million people, according to a new World Health Organization report.Nine of 10 people around the world are exposed to dangerously high levels of pollutants that can lead to cancer and cardiovascular diseases, according to the study, which drew off the most-recent 2016 data.  (Yonhap)Air pollution levels were the highest in the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Asia, where in some areas airborne toxins were five times

The public may cheer a whistleblower, but it’s not easy to be one. While they expose fraud and abuse that otherwise would remain veiled, whistleblowers in Europe often face retaliation by their employers and other repercussions. A new proposed European Union directive seeks to change that; it might also prove useful in countering the erosion of democratic values in the bloc’s east.　Currently less than half of European Union countries have legislation protecting whistleblowers. A patchwork of nat