FRANK CHING: Bush's personal bond with China
AS the world prepares to bid farewell to George W. Bush in a few months, his foreign policy lies in tatters. Wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis looms in Iran, relations with Russia are badly strained, and now North Korea is threatening to restart its nuclear weapons programme.

EDITORIAL: Show racism the red card
WE rightly hold teachers to high, even impossible, standards because they are charged with moulding minds and developing character.

FRANK CHING: China changes the course of its African boat
CHINA refused to allow Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The paper said Mugabe had travelled to Hong Kong but was then persuaded by China to go home.

AHMAD IBRAHIM: Making profits, and breaking out of poverty
RECENT months saw world palm oil prices reach record highs, topping RM4,000 a tonne at one point. The palm oil industry was laughing all the way to the bank.

EDITORIAL: The courts must rule
ON the face of it, nothing should be done to stop the men in blue from filing police reports. Officers of the law have as much right as anyone else to make a report at the nearest police station.

FRANK CHING: China must open up to restore its reputation
AT a time when the United States and now Europe are acting to rescue financial institutions such as Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and AIG, it is interesting to note that the Chinese authorities are offering a hand to distressed companies caught in the contaminated milk scandal.

EDITORIAL: Taken for a ride
WHEN allegations that testosterone-charged timber men in their four-wheel drives were deflowering Penan schoolgirls were posted on the website of the Bruno Manser Fund more than three weeks ago, the immediate response of Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu was to dismiss the claims as baseless because he had not received such complaints from Penan community leaders on his visits. Moreover, in his view, the BMF was nothing more than "a bunch of people who are nothing in their own country but like to sensationalise events elsewhere". It is perhaps too much to ask of a senior state leader who was involved in running battles with the Swiss activist to view an organisation that is committed to his cause of stopping the deforestation of the ancestral lands of the Penan with anything but deep disdain. Perhaps it is because the Women, Family and Community Development Minister does not carry such baggage that she has chosen not to be as dismissive. By all accounts, the Sarawak minister, too, no longer considers an investigation into the charges as a waste of time.

ALFRED GUSENBAUER: Lessons learnt from the US financial crisis
APOLOGISTS for neo-liberalism assume not only that states should be run like companies, but also that, as far as possible, they should not intervene in the economy. The market, they insist, regulates itself.

Poor Muslims slipping through the zakat net
MALAYSIAN Muslims paid more than half a billion ringgit in zakat last year. Both the number of people paying and the amount collected are steadily growing.

EDITORIAL: Keep the candle lit
A YEAR after the abduction and murder of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin, we must take pause to observe this sad anniversary in all sympathy for her bereaved family — as indeed for that of Sharlinie Nashar, lost in similar circumstances eight months ago and not yet found.

FRANK CHING: China's slow march towards rights, freedoms
IN the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, there was much talk about the state of human rights in China. Some declared that human rights continued to deteriorate while others insisted that the situation had been improving for the last 30 years. Still others asserted that both sides are right and that it is like describing a glass as half full or half empty.

W. SCOTT THOMPSON: Russia pushes out into the 'near abroad'
RUSSIAN leaders have from time immemorial divided foreign and security policy into two areas: far off and uninteresting posts like the United Nations or Argentina and the countries surrounding it, and the interesting part -- the "near abroad". Of course, a country with such a long frontier could be nervous, and the way Russia -- and the penultimate Soviet Union -- assuaged its fears was to expand.

OPINION: Asean is where all the action is going to be
The Asean Economic Community seeks to push the economic agenda of the region not only to achieve integration goals but also to increase the competitiveness of the region, writes MOHAMED IQBAL RAWTHER.

EILEEN NG: No factions? No one believes it
ONE man is retired, the other is retiring next month. So the MCA polls next month shouldn't be of too much interest to Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik and his successor, party president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting.

FRANK CHING: China wins a gold for its coming-out party
THE Beijing Olympics is over, to the relief of many, with no terrorist attacks or disasters, except for the fatal stabbing of an American at the beginning of the Games.

W. SCOTT THOMPSON: Tears for a moment they never thought they'd see
IN 1962, the White House sent a wet-behind-the-ears intern down to Louisville, Kentucky, to help register African-Americans.

EDITORIAL: Tale of two brothers
JUST a day after this newspaper highlighted the plight of the two destitute elderly brothers in Kuantan, they are getting the kind of help they need to get back on their feet. Some Good Samaritans have brought them food; others offered jobs. There have been promises of a proper place to live and pledges of financial aid and other assistance. This is invariably the case when a heart-rending story is published in the media, or when tragedy strikes. In such instances, and in the particular case of the two brothers, Malaysians have proved to be more than generous. Many Malaysians are no Scrooges when it comes to donating to charities which want to set up orphanages, old folks' homes, shelters, care centres or soup kitchens. Many get involved in worthwhile causes and humanitarian work in their spare time. Their willingness to dip into their wallets and do something to feed the hungry, lend a hand to the elderly or provide relief to victims of disasters warms the heart. It augurs well for the future that there is great compassion for the less fortunate among us.

SHASHI THAROOR: Mixed reactions to Musharraf's exit
PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf's resignation brings to an end one of the more interesting curiosities of subcontinental politics: for more than four years, Pakistan had a president who was born in India, while India had a prime minister (Manmohan Singh) who was born in Pakistan. Since the two countries' separation is now more than six decades old, that anomaly is unlikely to be repeated.

EDITORIAL: Less than ideal
WHILE the call by the Universiti Malaya chancellor for universities to conduct their research "objectively" may be, to borrow the words of British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, "the ultimate ideal", it may also turn out to be a "hopeless quest".

OPINION: Indonesians losing faith in democracy
In 1999, some 86 per cent of Indonesians came out to vote, reflecting their hopes for democracy to improve their lives. However, many are now staying away from voting as corruption, combined with social and economic hardship, has made the populace sceptical of democracy as a means to a better life, writes AMY CHEW.

ACHIM STEINER: Beijing and the world can breathe easier
IMAGES of the Beijing skyline seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been a common sight on the world's TV screens in recent days and weeks. Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust.

The Olympic link in a milk formula scandal
FOUR years ago, tragedy struck China when a company cheated parents by selling baby formula with little or no nutritional value. This led to the deaths of at least 12 infants and the severe malnutrition of hundreds more, with potential long-lasting consequences.

EDITORIAL: Murky milk
THE melamine-tainted milk in China has already claimed the lives of four infants and hospitalised another 13,000. It is highly unlikely that the contaminated milk will pose a major danger to this country because we do not import baby formula from China.

Standing on principle
DATUK Zaid Ibrahim may not have been the first minister to quit the cabinet. Nevertheless, there has been no real precedent for his resignation. In the past, when ministers fell on their swords, it was typically over sexual indiscretions, financial scandals or political fallings-out. Not a single minister left office over points of principle as the senator has done. At a time when all the talk has been about the jockeying for power, leaving very little space for ideals and ideas, we cannot help but be in favour of politicians who place principle above expediency. We also cannot help but wish that we have a culture where ministers are not reluctant to make their excuses and leave when something goes badly awry on their watch. The tried and tested way has been never to say sorry and never to resign. All this makes Zaid's resignation unprecedented stuff and such a study in contrasts. In deciding not to stay because he did not measure up, he only rises in our estimation.

FRANK CHING: The name of Bush's game is engagement with China
US PRESIDENT George W. Bush’s decision to attend the Olympic Games, despite domestic political pressure, reflects his realisation that it is important to establish a balance so that while the United States may chide Beijing on human rights, the overall approach is one of engagement.

RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE: How the West can strengthen Georgia
GIVEN the tremendous damage that Russia has inflicted on Georgia, it is easy to conclude that the Kremlin has achieved its goals.

FRANK CHING: 'Transit' passenger Ma mends ties with China, US
MA Ying-jeou, who will mark his first 100 days in office this week, has brought major changes in Taiwan's relations with mainland China and the United States, mending relations severely damaged by his predecessor, the pro-independence Chen Shui-bian, who insisted on pushing the envelope at every turn.

EDITORIAL: Back to Parliament
BENJAMIN Franklin once said that "in this life nothing is certain but death and taxes". But when it comes to the contest for the parliamentary seat in Permatang Pauh over the last quarter of a century, it would appear that nothing has been more certain than that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, or his surrogate, would be a sure-fire winner.

FRANK CHING: Failure not an option for N. Korea, US in nuke deal
NORTH Korea's recent behaviour, including the killing of a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted military area, and now a threat to expel South Koreans who work at tourism sites, indicates that there is still a long way to go before it can be considered a normal country, fit to join the international community.