Pakistan's new leaders target militants
Freshly installed Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani has already made his mark by freeing judges detained last year on President Pervez Musharraf's orders. In dealing with militancy, many expect the government to similarly unravel Musharraf's policies by treading softly. This will not mean an easy ride for al-Qaeda and radical jihadis, however. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 25, '08)

Promises and pandas for Taiwan's Ma
Saturday's decisive presidential victory by Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou was a clear mandate to rule the island and a humbling end for the era of President Chen Shui-bian. But with a sluggish economy, internal party divisions and complex relationships with Beijing and Washington, Ma faces an enormous balancing act. - Ting-I Tsai (Mar 25, '08)

SPENGLER
The mustard seed
in global strategy
With Pope Benedict's baptism of Magdi Allam, a prominent Muslim-born journalist who converted to Catholicism during Easter mass, the global agenda is changed through the soul of a single man. Since September 2001, the would-be wizards of Western strategy have tried to conjure variations of Islamic "reform" or "democracy". None of this matters now, as Magdi Allam's case confirms.
(Mar 25, '08)

CAMPAIGN OUTSIDER
Black and white and
barely read at all
US presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama gave an intelligent speech on race relations to the wrong country. America doesn't want to think about much, least of all about a topic on which everyone's already an expert. - Muhammad Cohen (Mar 25, '08)

   What Obama's pastor really said (video)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Bonfire of puppy-tossers, and the beer test
A widely viewed Internet video of a US Marine throwing a cute puppy to its death in a ditch in Iraq has Americans gnashing their teeth at the appalling actions of a native son. It's disturbing stuff, but where's America's all-consuming concern for the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi humans? It's this dichotomy that exposes the real reasons for the war, and the real risks that those who advocate its quick conclusion are taking. - Julian Delasantellis (Mar 25, '08)



Same game, new rules in Afghanistan
Obituaries for the Taliban's spring offensive are premature, though instead of trying to engage opposition forces head-on, the Taliban will open up new fronts in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In return, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and United States-led troops will target the Taliban's safe havens straddling the border with Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Mar 20, '08)

Pyongyang cashes in on US row
Just how "welcome and wanted" US forces remain in South Korea will depend to some extent on whether Seoul is prepared to pick up the tab for an extra US$10 billion in connection with the relocation of a US base in the country. The issue goes to the core of the US military presence in South Korea, something North Korea has been quick to exploit. - Donald Kirk (Mar 20, '08)

CHAN AKYA
Why markets love dictators
This week's developments once again highlight the reasons for markets to prefer dictatorships over freewheeling democracies. Clarity in decision-making is more important than preserving the rights of individuals, for the benefit of society at large, as seen by the market reactions to recent political changes in India, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and China. (Mar 20, '08)

SEX IN DEPTH
My short time with Tito
It all started innocently enough: a simple research outing to uncover the underworld of Western sex workers in Asia. But then, at the unsubtle urging of an over-bulked Baltic bouncer named Tito, the venture became a tour of the sex trade "circuit". What came out was the naked truth about organized crime, immigration, sex and the story behind some of Asia's most notorious ports of call girls.
William Sparrow writes a weekly column looking at issues relating to sex in Asia. (Mar 20, '08)

THE MOGAMBO GURU
A bunch of government gobbledy-gook
Liquidity crisis? When extra money is entering the US economy at a pace not seen since a few weeks before president Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls? We are awash with the stuff - unless you are one of the unemployed, whose numbers are already half way up to Great Depression levels.

Why Spitzer was Bushwhacked
Disgraced New York State governor Eliot Spitzer had cause to feel frisky when he visited Washington in February. As he was paying off a call girl, the press was preparing to run a Spitzer broadside against the world's biggest financial powers and President George W Bush, whom he described as a fugitive from justice and a partner in crime with predator lenders. It was a politically fatal coincidence. - F William Engdahl (Mar 19, '08)

Bernanke running out of bliss room
US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and his pack of merry pranksters, having given Wall Street yet more interest rate cuts, now have only a few months before they must conjure up other tricks to end the rot in the US economy as rate levels head toward their floor and inflation concerns mount. - Julian Delasantellis (Mar 19, '08)

SUN WUKONG