Person of the Week

Person of the Week
A nation with a largely Muslim population, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri ignored the warnings about Islamic extremism. But with the dead still being counted after the bombings in Bali, terror has been laid at her doorstep. With the long-awaited arrest of alleged Jemaah Islamiah leader Abubakar Ba'asyir, is "Mom" finally getting tough?

Verbatim
"Our world has disintegrated. I am trying to hold on to his love of life."
RAY GAJARDO,
grieving father, on the death of his younger son Marc in the Bali blast

[an error occurred while processing this directive]"It was good to see her again—I hope I haven't done anything wrong."
LOUIS GARNEAU,
ex-cycling champion from Canada, after putting his arm around Queen Elizabeth II during a photo session

"I'm sorry to have worried you.
KAORU HASUIKE,
Japanese abductee, speaking to his mother upon his return to Japan 24 years after being kidnapped and forced to live in North Korea

"Rocket science has been mythologized all out of proportion to its true difficulty."
JOHN CARMACK,
computer programming genius, on his plan to conduct a privately funded, manned space mission

Betel-Nut Beauties Dare to Bare
By BRYAN WALSH

Whether the product being sold is beer, cars or Italian parliamentary candidates, skin sells. Just ask the betel-nut girls of Taipei. For years, scantily clad women have been used as fleshy sign-boards to attract customers to roadside stalls selling betel nuts, aka "Taiwanese chewing gum," from shops with names like "Erotic Bitches" and "Moulin Rouge." But on October 15, the county government, embarrassed by the display of public erotica, began enforcing laws prohibiting 1,600 hawkers from unduly exposing certain parts of the female anatomy, specifically breasts, bellies and buttocks. Vendors, of course, claim the restrictions will shrink demand for betel nuts. "It's all about competition," says 19-year-old hawker Hsiao Enn, who works in a crimson miniskirt and revealing blouse. "But I have principles. I'm not so desperate as to show my private parts." Josephine Ho, a professor at Taiwan's National Central University, says hawkers should be allowed to bare all they can bear, if only for the sake of their working-class patrons "who rarely encounter any friendly gazes from other women in their ordinary lives." For their part, Enn's customers are clear on what they want: "the less they wear, the better," says one. Some cheesecake with your betel nut?

Numbers
62,000 knives were seized in U.S. airports last month, despite constant reminders by authorities that all weapons are prohibited on flights

100% of Iraqi voters are in favor of Saddam Hussein continuing in office, according to the nation's ruling party after a referendum last week

8.1% is how much China's economy grew in the third quarter this year, beating government forecasts

18 days is how long 1,000 workers will spend scraping gum from China's Tiananmen Square in preparation for the nation's Party Congress

4,000 endangered or protected birds were killed by a woman in Florida who instructed workers to shoot anything that threatened her fish hatchery; she also killed an alligator

15 years is how much jail time convicts in the United Arab Emirates can shave off their sentences by memorizing the entire Koran; so far 12 prisoners have taken advantage of the religious awareness campaign

Omen
Safer America, a store recently opened in downtown Manhattan, sells personal survival kits including gas masks, biohazard suits and parachutes for leaping from burning buildings