By GEOFFREY YORK, Toronto Globe and Mail

BEIJING -- When he visited South Korea a few years ago, Jang Song-taek was sometimes seen in his pajamas, wandering the hallways of his hotel, always followed by an entourage of obsequious underlings.

When he overslept one morning, nobody in the North Korean delegation dared to knock on his door. Instead, they begged a South Korean to rouse him from his slumber.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- In a potentially seismic shift in South African politics, a breakaway faction of the African National Congress has decided to form a new political party that could threaten the ANC's monopoly on power for the first time since the apartheid era.

BEIJING -- For the Chinese factories that churn out Christmas toys and Christmas trees, the holiday season has lost a lot of its cheer this year. For many, the season is becoming bleaker all the time.

BEIJING -- Faced with an unexpectedly sharp decline in its economic growth, China is hastily cobbling together a package of fiscal stimulus measures in hopes of avoiding a more painful unraveling of its economic boom.

BEIJING -- With a tide of economic nationalism rising, China is promising to review Coca-Cola Co.'s attempted $2.4-billion takeover of a Chinese juice manufacturer, casting a shadow over a deal that would be the biggest-ever foreign corporate acquisition in that country.

BEIJING -- Even as they bade an emotional farewell to the Olympics, China's proud citizens were gearing up for bigger battles to come: environmental challenges, economic inequities and social reforms.

BEIJING -- In a tacit criticism of China's intolerance of dissent, the International Olympic Committee says the Chinese government should have allowed its official protest zones to be "genuinely used" by demonstrators, rather than letting them sit empty.

BEIJING -- Don't wear white socks with black leather shoes. Shake hands for only three seconds. Maintain eye contact for 30 to 60 percent of the conversation. Don't wear more than three colors in your clothing. And above all, please stop spitting.

In the small Beijing suburb of Hongxialu, there's a new force in town. The government has recruited a special unit of 288 residents, mostly middle-aged or elderly, to work as "security volunteers" in the lead-up to the Olympics.

BEIJING -- With their infant daughter in their arms, Nuer and Guli visited a dozen hotels in Beijing in late May, searching desperately for a place to stay.