Seoul / AFP Ban Ki-moon arrived in South Korea on Wednesday for a six-day visit that has fuelled speculation the UN chief is lining up a tilt at the presidency of his home country. Ban’s schedule involves a number of international gatherings, including a peace forum in the southern island of Jeju where he arrived late afternoon on a ...

  Beijing / AFP The disputed rocks and reefs of the South China Sea are more than an ocean away from the landlocked African nation of Niger. But that has not stopped the strife-ridden, largely desert country of 17 million people adding its voice to a growing diplomatic chorus that Beijing says supports its rejection of an international tribunal hearing ...

  LONDON Sixty-five years ago, what has become the European Union was an embryo conceived in fear. It has been stealthily advanced from an economic to a political project, and it remains enveloped in a watery utopianism even as it becomes more dystopian. The EU’s economic stagnation — in some of the 28 member nations, youth unemployment approaches 50 percent ...

  The decision reached on Wednesday by Eurozone finance ministers to start debt relief for Athens is a sigh of relief for Greeks who have been reeling under austerity measures. The deal will see unlocking of 10.3 billion euros ($12 billion) in bailout cash. The pact also met the condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which stipulated that easing ...

Catherine Putz On Saturday, while Kazakh police were rounding up potential protesters near the Baiterek monument, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov was meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. That the protests were linked to simmering frustrations about changes to the Land Code that rumor said could lead to the Chinese purchase of Kazakh land is a coincidence–but one that highlights ...

  The acrimony between Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, inflamed in recent weeks, is likely to be resolved with a series of compromises that will bring relative unity in the weeks after next month’s final primaries. Limited conversations between supporters of the two candidates have been productive and both sides are guardedly optimistic, despite the sharp barbs the campaigns ...

On a sunny day in Warsaw, it’s difficult to understand why the city’s well-kept streets simmer with anger and discontent over the European vision. The economy has been growing at 3.6 percent, roughly twice the overall European rate. And there’s little or no influx of Syrian or Afghan refugees: Warsaw must be whiter than any other major city in Europe, ...

  Jenna Gibson Stories about South Korea’s education obsession are nothing new. News outlets have run exposés of illegal late-night cram schools or lamentations of the country’s high-pressure testing system. In these stories, much has been said about the mental health repercussions of 14-hour school days. But there are now growing concerns about the physical consequences of keeping students in ...

  When The Economist recently reported that Taiwan’s trade with China “ballooned” during the administration of outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou of the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT), it was repeating what has become a commonplace among writers on the cross-strait relationship. We are told that trade “boomed” under Ma (Washington Post, Institutional Investor), or “particularly since Ma” (East Asia Forum, International Business ...

  BLOOMBERG Don’t fear the Fed is the new mantra for global markets. Global equities rose to a two-week high amid increasing investor optimism that the world economy can withstand higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve. Oil advanced and gold fell amid a retreat in the dollar. U.S. shares looked for consecutive climbs after alternating between gains and losses ...