Florida pastor Terry Jones certainly deserves a lion’s share of criticism for his symbolic burning of the Quran on March 20, having been warned for months that it was almost certain to provoke violence in the Muslim world. It did, and now 24 people are dead in Afghanistan, including six U.N. workers in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.It is important to note, however, that the reaction of Musli

Viewpoints April 7, 2011

The two parties are having a heated debate over the Republican plan to slice $61 billion off Uncle Sam’s projected $3.6 trillion budget. If the Republicans get their way, the deficit will fall from 9.5 percent of gross domestic product to 9.1 percent. If they don’t, they’ll probably shut the government for a couple of days. Then they’ll compromise on, say, a $40 billion budget cut, having proved t

Viewpoints April 7, 2011

NEW YORK ― After Saddam Hussein’s fall, the United States successfully pressed creditors to write off much of Iraq’s external debt. Senior American officials, including Paul Wolfowitz, later president of the World Bank, argued that the Iraqi people should not be saddled with obligations that the dictator contracted in order to enrich himself and oppress his subjects. Citing a long-standing doctrin

Viewpoints April 7, 2011

ZURICH ― Discussions within the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, which is poised to meet on April 7, are about to get hot. The risk that rising inflation in emerging Asia could spill over into Europe will pit the Bank’s inflation hawks against those in favor of ensuring as fast a return to full employment as possible. But what may cause even greater dissension is a renewed clash of natio

Viewpoints April 6, 2011

Recently a family friend, knowing that I write books, asked how she could copyright her daughter’s poetry. For the record, the girl is 13. My answer ― don’t worry about it ― was the same one I give to writers fretful over Google’s plans to digitize the world’s books. Go ahead, Google. Scan my out-of-print works, now otherwise available for a penny (plus shipping) from used-book sellers on the Inte

Viewpoints April 6, 2011

Something fascinating is afoot in Japan: anger. People are fuming about the nuclear crisis that put their nation in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.The response is restrained compared with the perpetually aggrieved Tea Party crowd in the U.S., or Chinese who lash out at anyone abroad with the slightest criticism. Germans are plenty annoyed about bailing out deadbeat nations sharing the eur

Viewpoints April 6, 2011

Initial public offerings. Big takeovers. Nerdy 20-somethings getting rich quickly. To borrow a phrase from an old Prince song, the markets are suddenly partying like it’s 1999 again. The tech bubble is back. Facebook Inc. is commanding an enormous valuation. So are Groupon Inc., Twitter Inc. and LivingSocial.com. Even Rovio Mobile Oy, the small Finnish company behind the hit app Angry Birds, looks

Viewpoints April 6, 2011

When former President Jimmy Carter last visited Cuba, in 2002, he delivered a remarkable speech via the state-run media that criticized the Castro dictatorship and exposed listeners to the truly revolutionary idea that it’s up to the Cuban people, not the one-party regime nor any foreign government, to determine Cuba’s future.Naturally, his visit raised hopes that this might represent an ever-so-s

Viewpoints April 5, 2011

Even people in the sports world are not free of this craze for money as more in-depth reports on the arrest of three soccer referees show. Lu Jun was arrested for taking bribes from local soccer teams. Before being exposed, he was known as the “golden whistle” for his “integrity.” He officiated in two matches at the 2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan. Praising the clean soccer administ

Viewpoints April 5, 2011

With U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday announcing his re-election campaign bid, the unofficial starting whistle for the 2012 election has been blown. In a highly unusual move, Obama will be the first U.S. president in modern history to place his campaign headquarters outside of the Washington D.C. and suburban Virginia corridor (basing it instead in his home city of Chicago). The president hop

Viewpoints April 5, 2011

Regarding the new “science-business belt” project, President Lee Myung-bak may believe that his administration is free to select any location for it, whether in Sejong City or anywhere. We cannot disagree, but we also consider the people of Chungcheong have justifiable reason to insist that the multitrillion won (multibillion dollar) project should be awarded to the central region.The science comp

Editorial April 4, 2011

At a small church in Florida, a 12-man “jury” picked from its members handed down a “guilty” verdict on the Quran. The Islamic holy book was then soaked in kerosene for an hour before it was set on fire. The mock trial had every ingredient of a comedy or a voodoo ritual.That little mischief had grave consequences, however. It touched off fierce protests in the Muslim world. In Afghanistan a score

Editorial April 4, 2011