By MARK LEIBOVICH and GRANT BARRETT

WASHINGTON — Politics without buzzwords is like sports without clichés, math without numbers or Blago without bleeps. Tough to imagine, in other words, especially in such a game-changer of a campaign year in which buzzwords were flying like shoes.

Buzzwords are what political wiseguys use to sound all important and knowing in a profession whose prime currency is the illusion of being both. They are like secret passwords for the chattering class, the verbal equivalent of a terrorist fist jab.

By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG — Chinese authorities have begun blocking access from mainland China to the Web site of The New York Times even while lifting some of the restrictions they had recently imposed on the Web sites of other media outlets.

When computer users in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou tried to connect on Friday morning to nytimes.com, they received a message that the site was not available; some users were cut off on Thursday as early as 8 p.m. The blocking was still in effect on Saturday morning.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said he would be watching out for journalists taking off their shoes in news conferences after an Iraqi reporter threw a pair at outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad.

Liu Jianchao was asked what he thought of Sunday’s incident, when the television journalist also called the American leader a “dog,” and replied all leaders deserved respect.

“I believe we should have basic respect for the leader of a country,” he told a media briefing, before adding that the attack had given him pause for thought.

By Andrew Jacobs  

BEIJING: Local officials in Shandong Province have apparently found a cost-effective way to deal with gadflies, whistleblowers and all manner of muckraking citizens who dare to challenge the authorities: dispatch them to the local psychiatric hospital.

According to an investigative report published Monday by a state-owned newspaper, public security officials in Xintai city have been institutionalizing residents who persist in their personal campaigns to expose corruption or to protest the unfair seizure of their property. Some people said they were committed up to two years, and several of those interviewed said they had been forced to consume psychiatric medication.

By Lucy Hornby

BEIJING (Reuters) - The new face of AIDS in China is a shy man with a heavy provincial accent, a weathered face and the rough hands of a manual worker.

Zhang Xiaohu, a character in an educational film for migrant workers, is part of a trend that worries Chinese officials: the potential for AIDS to spread among the estimated 200 million rural migrants driving the country’s rapid economic expansion.

AIDS in China has, to date, mostly been limited to drug users, gay men, prostitutes and the victims of reckless blood-buying schemes in the 1990s.

 As scare subsides and sales banlifted, AVA tackles future imports

Neo Chai Chin
chaichin@mediacorp.com.sg

THE final batch of China-made milk products was released for sale by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) yesterday after they were tested to be safe for consumption, closing a chapter in the melamine contamination scare that led to their sale and import ban since Sept 19.

The phased release of such products by the AVA began earlier this month and yesterday, the remaining categories - biscuits and crackers, liquid milk, ice-cream, milk and whey protein products - were given the all-clear, save for six tainted biscuit products. In all, 327 products have been released for sale.