Last week, Mexican authorities arrested Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, the leader of the Zetas, Mexico’s deadliest and most feared drug cartel. In Mexico, the news was met with relief, although there is also apprehension that his arrest will lead to a convulsion of violence; historically, taking out cartel kingpins has meant power struggles within organized crime groups, schisms that leave many dead in their wake.Trevino Morales, known as Z-40, was apprehended ― along with a bodyguard and a third

Viewpoints July 29, 2013

It is a shame that the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party have been spending all their time quarreling over an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with improving people’s livelihoods or creating jobs.The two parties have been embroiled in futile political strife over the allegations that former President Roh Moo-hyun offered to make a concession regarding the Western maritime border to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during their 2007 summit in Pyongyang.To establi

Editorial July 25, 2013

Korea’s financial regulatory system is likely to undergo another major change next year as the government has decided to separate the consumer protection function of the Financial Supervisory Service and expand it into an independent agency.The reform plan is intended to bolster protection for citizens and small firms as a series of financial scandals in recent years, including the savings bank debacle in 2011, showed that the nation’s regulatory system had much room for improvement in terms of

Editorial July 25, 2013

China has evicted more than 400,000 Tibetans from their homelands over the last several years.These forced relocations, sometimes hundreds of miles away, all fall under a program deceptively named “Comfortable Housing.”Part of the unstated reasoning is China’s resolve to pull Tibetans and other minorities out of their semi-autonomous regions and integrate them into the larger Chinese society. But another unspoken motivation, Human Rights Watch says in a new report, is the determination to exploi

Viewpoints July 25, 2013

One of the most important economic stories of the era is unfolding in China, and every American should hope for a happy ending.The world’s second-largest economy is slowing down from its 30-year dash. A formula based on exports, cheap credit, heavy manufacturing and infrastructure investment has run its course ― after, it should be noted, helping to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.China’s economy grew 7.5 percent in the second quarter this year, far below the double-digit gain

Viewpoints July 24, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin cares a lot about what you think ― about NSA contractor-turned-defector and Russian asylum seeker Edward Snowden, and pretty much everything else ― to the point of spending $300 million of state funds last year on the external audiovisual service RT, designed primarily to spoonfeed the Kremlin worldview to a global audience. And unearthed records show that’s just the tip of a much more insidious iceberg.Why, you might ask, would an iron-fisted authoritarian care

Viewpoints July 24, 2013

RIMINI, Italy ― You think we have it bad, caught between a stagnant economy and gridlocked politics? Then take a trip to Europe, where the economy is going not sideways but backward ― and the politics are too.Europe’s numbers should be familiar by now, but they’re still awful. In the United States, President Obama’s much-derided stimulus package helped end our recession in 2009; in Europe, with no comparable stimulus, the recession isn’t over. Unemployment in the 17 countries that share the euro

Viewpoints July 24, 2013

The southwestern provincial city of Gwangju has been chosen to host the world swimming championships in 2019. For the city, it is definitely a matter for congratulation. The biennial swimming competition will give the city, which has already been selected as the venue of the 2015 Summer Universiade, another major chance to promote itself abroad as an attractive investment and tourist destination.Yet the city’s achievement has lost much of its luster as its officials face an investigation for all

Editorial July 23, 2013

The government has decided to lower the tax rates on home purchases indefinitely to stimulate the depressed housing market. In principle, the decision is a step in the right direction; it will boost housing transactions to some degree by alleviating the tax burden on home buyers.But the problem is that home acquisition taxes account for a large portion of the tax income of local governments. Any cut in the tax rates would translate into a reduction in provincial governments’ tax revenues. Offici

Editorial July 23, 2013

The new federal guidelines for how colleges should handle sexual-harassment cases aren’t just unreasonable. They’re hostile to reasonableness in principle. The Justice Department and the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights set forth the rules in a letter they sent in May. The letter was addressed to the University of Montana but says it should serve as “a blueprint for colleges and universities throughout the country.” The letter criticized the university for defining “sexual harassme

Viewpoints July 23, 2013

The seizure in Panama of the Chong Chon Gang, a rusty old North Korean ship carrying last century’s Soviet-era weapons from Cuba hidden under 250,000 sacks of brown sugar, may seem to have the wacky trappings of a “Gilligan’s Island” episode with a Cold War flashback that includes a rioting crew and a captain threatening to kill himself when Panamanian soldiers boarded his ship.But as the ship’s containers begin to be cleared of the 100-pound bags of sugar and the weapons systems are exposed and

Viewpoints July 23, 2013