It’s good to see the boys of summer back on the baseball field. It will be even better if more players take the field without a pinch of chewing tobacco tucked under their lower lips.Sure, that puffed-out jaw of Lenny “Nails” Dykstra will live in the memory of every Philadelphia Phillies’ fan who ever watched him tear up the base paths. And ballplayers’ chewing habit goes back more than a century,

The expanded Kansai regional alliance, which has the promise of becoming the first such organization to achieve efficient administration beyond prefectural boundaries, is hard at work.In this connection, there is no need to be obsessed with prefectural administrative borders in effect since the Meiji era (1868-1912). Transport conditions and the communications environment have changed drastically

China has taken giant strides toward economic and social development. This has expedited its transformation from the previous class structure of workers, farmers, cadres and intellectuals to a more complicated one that comprises more classes and groups. To find the best way to handle and coordinate the interests of all classes and groups in today’s changed and pluralistic society and form a vigoro

Investors of the world, unite and buy Australian bank debt. Why? Moody’s Investors Service suggests you shouldn’t.Really, in our post-U.S.-crisis world, is there a better contrarian indicator? Credit raters missed the Asian crisis, Russia’s default, the tech-stock crash, Enron, the U.S. housing bubble, Wall Street’s collapse and Europe’s meltdown. Now, we’re supposed to care what they think about

After making a big splash at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this month, Donald Trump was asked if he is considering a run for the presidency.“I’m incredibly tempted,” he responded.If Trump gives in to temptation, his past actions and positions may collectively provide the biggest handicap for a major candidate in the history of presidential politics.If he decides to run

The offer of two squadrons of used F-16 jet fighters ― gratis ― from the United States seems too good to be true. With its aging defense weaponry systems in desperate need of upgrading, the Indonesian Military (TNI) signaled last week it had accepted the offer under a U.S. grant. The ball is back in the U.S. court to decide whether to proceed with the deal or not.But wait. Nothing is as free as it

BAGHDAD ― Frustrated with high unemployment, poor public services and corruption, Iraqis have been transfixed by media coverage of the uprising in Cairo. But while many are filled with admiration for the Egyptian people’s efforts, most here appear reluctant to follow suit.“I never watched any news on TV, but now I am following it daily,” said Namareq Sultan, 22, a medical student in Baghdad, regar

President Obama’s new budget contains no serious proposal for solving two of the biggest fiscal problems facing the federal government: Medicare and Social Security. And though Republican leaders in Congress are happy to take swipes at his proposals, they haven’t come up with a serious plan of their own to fix those popular programs either.But one potential Republican presidential candidate recent

President Barack Obama’s call for “investments” in education, infrastructure and science and health research is dismissed by most congressional Republicans as a fig leaf for more big-government spending. That underlies the House’s decision Feb. 19 to slash $61 billion from an array of discretionary spending programs in the current fiscal year budget. This may make proponents feel good, yet, as alm

House Republicans are using a bill to fund the government through Sept. 30 as a vehicle to roll back spending on many programs favored by Democrats. But it’s easy for lawmakers to cut spending on someone else’s priorities. The real test of fiscal discipline is the scrutiny they give their own.For Republicans, that means the Defense Department ― by far the largest federal program funded through ann

The Chinese audience will soon bid farewell to radio and TV broadcasts of the BBC and Voice of America in the Chinese language. VOA is the second mainstream Western media to announce plans to end its radio broadcasts in Chinese. Earlier, the BBC World Service decided to cancel a number of foreign-language services, including Chinese. The cut in the major Western media organizations’ Chinese langua