COVER

The Great Game (Cover Story)

Macau is in the middle of a building spree that will turn the former colony into Asia's Las Vegas— or maybe something even bigger

Synergy (Cover Story)

Spreading that old Disney magic

SPECIAL REPORT

The Common Touch (Cover Story)

He's tough and controversial, but Thaksin Shinawatra looks poised to ride massive popular support to a second term as Thailand's Prime Minister

A Mixed Record (Timeline)

Since he became Thailand's Prime Minister four years ago, Thaksin Shinawatra has inspired both adulation and animosity

BRIEFING

Evil Ant Invasion! (Notebook)

As a plague of insects descends on southern China, authorities wonder how to stop them and who's to blame

Milestones (Notebook)

Philip Johnson, architectural icon

Verbatim (Notebook)

Quotes of the Week

Letters (Notebook)

Reader's Letters: Sea of Sorrow

ASIA

Emergency Measures

Avian flu is on the rise in Vietnam and is now endemic in much of Asia. Can heightened vigilance keep it at bay?

Code of the Frontier

An alleged rape by four soldiers rallies the tribes of Baluchistan province against the Pakistani army

BUSINESS

China's Market Maladies

Despite a roaring economy, mainland stocks are in the dumps, and Beijing's remedies aren't working

A Chance to Talk (Global Agenda)

From poverty to disease, the Europeans once again set the Davos agenda

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

It's Raining Sardines

Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore is a sublimely weird, compulsively readable blockbuster

GLOBAL ADVISER

House of Calm (TIME Global Adviser)

An Asian style that preaches beauty in imperfection

State of the Art (TIME Global Adviser)

ARCO showcases the latest and greatest contemporary art from all over the globe

Tito's Tank Engine (TIME Global Adviser)

Follow in the tracks of Yugoslavia's former leader with a day trip on the Blue Train