In the past five centuries, the Malay community has settled across a wide area, from the Riau Archipelago to as far as the banks of South Africa. A new book published by Wiley-Blackwell, The Malays, confronts the bewildering diversity and contradictions of the Malay identity, ethnicity and consciousness. The book seeks to provide a provocative case study of the Malay people and to explore the idea of “Malayness”.

Former first lady Barbara Bush, 83, underwent heart surgery Wednesday at Methodist Hospital in Houston for a heart valve replacement.

Ms. Elizabeth Wong, one of Malaysia's leading human rights activists, has resigned her seat in the ZMalaysian Senate after photos of her naked in bed surfaced.

Juan Williams, an NPR reporter who has also written for the Washington Post, showed some real emotion yesterday when describing Barack Obama's inauguration speech and the benediction delivered by civil rights activist Reverend Joseph Lowery.

Despite the fact that the election was over months ago, people continue to use Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein, as an issue. For example, in her newest book, Guilty, Ann Coulter repeated refers to Barack Obama as B. Hussein Obama. It was thus interesting to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama today, and see the announcer refer to him as Barack H. Obama.

This is quite possibly the first Inauguration Day which will have TV ratings to rival the Super Bowl. And for January 20th, 2009's Day of Change, what are the times, what is the lineup for Barack Obama's inauguration?

One of Barack Obama's still unfilled cabinet positions is a brand-new one: Chief Technology Officer (CTO). According to a new Business Week story, that choice has been narrowed to two.

Race and gender influence the way politicians speak, which is not always to their advantage. Camelia Suleiman from Florida International University and Daniel O’Connell from Georgetown University in the US have come to this conclusion as a result of their findings¹, published online in Springer’s Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.

George W. Bush landed today on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush, CVN-77, named after his father, on the occasion of its commissioning.

The word ‘terrorism’ is one that is frequently used by politicians and journalist alike. With over 110 different definitions to the word, the international community is still unable to agree on a common definition of the word.

Arnold Schwarzenneger will be "termed out" as California governor in 2010. Speculation has been that he would challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer for her seat. On Monday, with the announcement that Meg Whitman has stepped down from the boards of eBay as well as those of Procter & Gamble Co. and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., we may have seen the first indication that Whitman is ready to run for Arnold's vacated spot.