A table-tennis match on Jan. 7 in Beijing marked the 30-year anniversary of the establishment of normalized diplomatic relations between China and the United States on Jan. 1, 1979. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, center left, and China's Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya, center right, attended.

In April 1971, China invited the U.S. table-tennis team to visit in what Time magazine called "the ping heard round the world." One of the Americans was then 15-year-old Judy Bochenski Hoarfrost, right, who returned today to play veteran Chinese player Qi Baoxiang, left. The 1971 visit launched an era of "Ping-Pong diplomacy," and according to Time, "Probably never before in history has a sport been used so effectively as a tool of international diplomacy." Obviously, with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it hasn't been the only time China has used sports to try to improve its image.

See also:

• Chinese President Hu Jintao dominates at the Ping-Pong table.
• The FP photo essay, "China's 30 Years of Economic Overdrive," marks the reforms set in motion by Deng Xiaopeng.

Who'd have guessed it? U.S. President George W. Bush might be going down as the greatest protector of the seas ever. Later today, he is to announce the establishment of the "largest area of protected sea in the world." Commercial fishing and mining will be largely prohibited in protected zones of the remote Pacific that include some of the most biologically diverse locations on Earth.

Critics say that any benefit from the establishment of protected areas will be cancelled out by the effects of greenhouse gases and climate change. Nevertheless, Joshua Reichert of the Pew Environment Group told the BBC that Bush has "protected more special places in the sea than any other person in history."

It just might be another achievement to add to Bush's legacy.

Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The Year of the Ox starts Jan. 26. An "ox," according to Webster's New World College Dictionary (4th edition), is "esp., a castrated, domesticated bull (Bos taurus), used as a draft animal."

In a recent report predicting that Southeast Asian stocks will make a limited comeback this year, CIMB-GK Research analyst Toh Hoon Chew wrote:

The year of the castrated bull seems appropriate given our expectations for 2009.

But some are still hoping for a virily bullish year in the stock markets. South Korea's Financial Services Commission chairman, Jun Kwang-Woo, second right, adorns a bull with a crown of flowers to celebrate the 2009 opening of the stock market at the Korea Exchange (KRX) in Seoul on Jan. 2.

Meanwhile, the folks at the Tokyo Stock Exchange seem to have the ox theme down. Kimono-clad women and a cuddly, cartoon-like ox celebrate the first day of 2009 trading today, Jan. 5.

This is how the swimming pool area at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel looked on Nov. 29, the day that Indian commandos finally declared the five-star hotel secure after it came under siege by terrorists on Nov. 26:

This is how the pool area looked Sunday, Dec. 21, when the hotel partially reopened just 22 days after the terrorist siege ended:

By 11 p.m. on Sunday, and amid security checks that included metal detectors and X-ray machines, people had checked into about 71 of the 268 rooms in the Taj's tower wing. The 297 rooms of the 105-year-old heritage wing, however, might not reopen until March 2010, a Mumbai-based Morgan Stanley analyst has said.

The Trident-Oberoi, the other posh hotel that was attacked, opened its Trident portion on the same day with similar security measures. One hundred of the Trident's 557 available rooms were reserved for Sunday night.

At both hotels, reopened restaurants were fully booked.

Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images, SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images

Today, the last publicly viewable statue of fascist Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on the European continent was taken down in the city of Santander:

To commemorate this occasion, here's a look at some other notable statue-topplings:

Nov. 2, 1956: Residents of Budapest, Hungary, destroy a statue of Stalin during a demonstration against communist domination. The statue had been toppled Oct. 23, 1956, at 9:30 p.m.

Aug. 22, 1991: A crowd watches the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka (a predecessor of the KGB), being toppled in Moscow.

Aug. 23, 1991: The statue of Lenin is dismantled in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius as the government banned the Communist Party. Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and declared its independence in 1990.

April 9, 2003: Iraqis watch a statue of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein falling in Baghdad. Before it fell, a U.S. marine had briefly covered its head with an American flag. The impression it conveyed of conquest rather than liberation prompted the U.S. military to bar display of the U.S. flag in most circumstances.

Nov. 23, 2003: Protesters topple a papier-mâché statue of U.S. President George W. Bush in central London. They were demonstrating against the state visit of Bush to Britain and the war in Iraq.

Oct. 13, 2007: A man jumps on a statue of former Mexican President Vicente Fox in Boca del Rio. The statue, which was going to be unveiled the next day, was knocked down by a group of unidentified people.

Photos: RAFA RIVAS/AFP/Getty Images, AFP/Getty Images, ANATOLY SAPRONENKOV/AFP/Getty Images, WOJTEK DRUSZCZ/AFP/Getty Images, PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images, EVA-LOTTA JANSSON/AFP/Getty Images, SAUL RAMIREZ/AFP/Getty Images

Five-hundred illegal, but colorful, slot machines confiscated by police during several operations throughout Lima, Peru, meet their demise at the port of Callao on Dec. 16.

The bottles of Indonesia feel their pain.

Photo: ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/Getty Images

Apparently, some Kenyans are still celebrating Barack Obama's winning of the U.S. presidential election last month. But a Kenyan high court pulled the plug on one celebratory activity that was scheduled to take place in Nairobi last Saturday, the 13th: a bullfight.

Animal-welfare activists said the competitions, in which two bulls have a go at one another, are cruel. Check out the full National Geographic video report here.

This month marks the 30-year anniversary of economic reforms launched by late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping that have turned China today into one of the most powerful countries in the world. In late 1991, the New York Times reported that Deng told China's Economic Daily:

In the end, convincing those who do not believe in socialism will depend on our nation's development. If we can reach a comfortable standard of living by the end of this century [the 20th], then that will wake them up a bit. And in the next century [the 21th], when we as a socialist country join the middle ranks of the developed nations, that will help to convince them. Most of these people will genuinely see that they were mistaken.

Fast-forward to 2008: China has been doing astoundingly well, but people in developed countries aren't exactly admitting to being mistaken about socialism. Rather, "communist" China has learned how to play the capitalist game -- well.

To see a timeline of China's economic advances during the past three decades, check out FP's latest photo essay, "China's 30 Years of Economic Overdrive."

AFP/Getty Images, China Photos/Getty Images

This week, Muslims from Belarus to Indonesia are celebrating the holiday Eid al-Adha, in which an animal -- typically a cow, goat, or sheep -- is slaughtered to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God. A portion of the meat is distributed to the poor.

In India this year, however, Eid is taking a largely quiet tone, the Washington Post reports, in respect for those victimized in late November's terrorist siege of Mumbai. Leaders of the All India Organization of Imams of Mosques requested the country's 140 million Muslims -- about 13 percent of the population -- to wear black bands on their shoulders to show solidarity. Muslim leaders have also requested that cows not be slaughtered in order to show sensitivity to Hindu beliefs against killing cows.

Indian Muslims -- some photographed praying Dec. 9 at the Jama Masjid mosque in Delhi, in the image above -- for the most part seek to distance themselves from the allegedly Islamist terrorists who attacked Mumbai, and they have drawn attention to the fact that about one third of the 171 victims killed were Muslims. Additionally, Muslim leaders have refused to permit the nine terrorists killed during the siege to be buried in Islamic cemeteries.

"It's not a happy Eid," Ahsaan Qureshi, a famous Indian comic, told the Post.

Photo: MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images

In 1986, I had the opportunity to dine at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai (then Bombay). I was visiting extended family, and for some reason, someone decided that a once-in-a-lifetime splurge at the Taj would be worth it. At the time, I had no idea that a place of such opulence could exist in India. Stepping into it, I felt as if I were entering an oasis, an otherworldly bubble with First World conditions transplanted inside.

Mumbai’s air was oppressively hot, thick, and sticky. Inside the Taj, the air was air-conditioned, crisp, and breathable. On the streets of Mumbai, my ears were assaulted with the sounds of horns incessantly beeping and hawkers selling their wares. Inside the Taj, the atmosphere was quiet and serene. Outdoors, I smelled dung and smoke, and walked through overcrowded, filthy streets lined with shacks inhabited by barefoot children in muddy clothes. Inside the Taj, it was odor-free, and poverty-free. Strangely, I don’t remember exactly what I ate there, but whatever I ate, it didn’t make me sick.

Thus, I felt a tinge of nostalgia last month when I watched smoke billowing out of the mighty Taj.

To see images of the besieged Taj and other sites attacked in Mumbai, check out FP’s latest photo essay, “Mayhem in Mumbai.”

Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Remember the massive protests against U.S. beef that took place in South Korea last summer?

Well, last Thursday, while Americans were feasting on Thanksgiving turkey and the world's attention was drawn to the Mumbai terrorist attacks, South Korea's supermarket chains resumed selling U.S. beef. The 2003 ban on U.S. beef, prompted by fear of mad cow disease, was lifted in June. Until last week, though, only tiny butcher shops and some restaurants had been selling beef from the United States.

Were the supermarkets finally swayed by President Bush's endless paeans to the delicious taste of American cattle? "I'm more than willing to eat U.S. beef, and do -- eat a lot of it," he told a Japanese TV station in 2005.

Nope. It's about consumer demand in tough economic times. U.S. beef costs 60 to 70 percent less than Korean beef. As one satisfied customer told the Associated Press, "It's cheap -- that's all we consumers care about."

Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Curious about what's going on in the photograph above? To find out, check out FP's latest photo essay, "Gaza's (Literal) Underground Economy."

Photo: Abid Katib/Getty Images

Here's why you should never bet against Japanese innovation.

At right, Japanese Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe feeds himself with the assistance of "My Spoon" during a demonstration of healthcare robots in Tokyo on Nov. 10. People with disabilities can operate a joystick with their jaw, hands, or feet to direct My Spoon to their mouth.

My Spoon has undergone rigorous research and development, which seems to have paid off. It won a Robot of the Year award in 2006.

Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Approximately 2,500 sheep took to the streets of Marseille, in southern France, on Nov. 9 as part of a demonstration of breeders and shepherds who are protesting the crisis in the ovine sector and demanding more government assistance.

The banner reads:"Barnier, go to the end …; Sarko, think about us!!" (Michel Barnier is France's agricultural minister, and Sarko, of course, refers to President Nicolas Sarkozy.)

Barack Obama, 47, will soon become one of the youngest presidents in U.S. history, but that's nothing compared with Bhutan's Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Today, the 28-year-old -- who quite fittingly has a master's degree in politics from Oxford -- officially became the world's youngest reigning monarch when he received the coveted raven crown. In December 2006, his father, the former king, abdicated and handed many responsibilities of the throne to his son, but it wasn't until today that the official coronation took place.

Bhutan became a parliamentary democracy in March when people went to the polls for the first time ever. The country now has a prime minister as head of government, but the young, handsome king remains head of state.

In July, FP compiled a list of "The World's 10 Youngest Leaders." At the time, those youngsters were:

1. Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (Feb. 21, 1980)
2. Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit (June 8, 1972)
3. The DRC's President Joseph Kabila (June 4, 1971)
4. Macedonia's Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski (Aug. 31, 1970)
5. Nauru's President Marcus Stephen (Oct. 1, 1969)
6. Swaziland's King Mswati III (April 19, 1968)
7. Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili (Dec. 21, 1967)
8. Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe (June 6, 1966)
9. Bulgaria's Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev (May 5, 1966)
10. Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (Sept. 14, 1965)

Earlier, in March, we also compiled "The World's 10 Oldest Leaders." John McCain would have been a spring chicken compared with some of these guys:

1. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (Feb. 21, 1924)
2. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud (1924, exact day unknown)
3. Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (Feb. 20, 1925)*
4. Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade (May 29, 1926)
5. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (May 4, 1928)
6. Kuwait's Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sahab (June 6, 1929)
7. Cuba's President Raúl Castro (June 3, 1931)
8. Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki (Nov. 15, 1931)
9. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Sept. 26, 1932)
10. Burma's Than Shwe, chair of the State Peace and Development Council (Feb. 2, 1933)

*Koirala is no longer prime minister as of Aug. 18, 2008, likely making Cameroon's President Paul Biya, born Feb. 13, 1933, the new addition to the list.

Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

There's a surge going on in Iraq, but this one doesn't involve troops. The Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) is not only remaining healthy amid the global financial crisis, but its index has been surging in value. The ISX index has risen 44 percent this year, from 34.59 points at the end of December 2007 to 49.873 today. One reason: The tiny stock exchange is disconnected from the global financial network.

The ISX is also quite low tech. The photo shows Iraqi traders updating share prices on a white board at the ISX in Baghdad on Oct. 30.

The above is an aerial view of a humongous portrait of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, sculpted in gravel and sand by American artist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada on a Barcelona beachfront, on Nov. 3. The project is called Expectation, and it required a civil engineering firm, a topographer, machinery for clearing the area, and gravel as a filler, among other things.

Information provided with the photo says:

The outsize scale allows the artist to allude to the global impact on the eve of his [Obama's] election. It both embodies the immense sense of hope felt by Barack Obanma's [sic] supporters and raises a mirror to reflect the source of that hope.

Photo: LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

This autumn, an ancient trade route that crosses the disputed Kashmiri border between India and Pakistan opened after being closed 61 years ago, when the two countries broke free of the British Empire. Many hope the opening of the trade route, in a bitterly disputed Himalayan region, will boost the economy on both sides of the “Line of Control” that divides the territory. In the photo above, the first truck carrying goods from the Pakistani side rumbles across the bridge to the Indian side.

For Kashmir's artisans, famed for their rugs, copper bowls, and other handicrafts, the opening of the trade route is a sign of hope. Check out some of their beautiful creations and learn more about the trade route in this week's photo essay, "Making Peace, One Trinket at a Time."

TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images

If you need a late-afternoon laugh, check out this video of Nozomu Sato, a Japanese comedian who has been impersonating U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama lately. And, he's 5 foot, 7 inches, tall -- only about half a foot shorter that the real thing.

Cairo's zabaleen form the backbone of the city's garbage disposal system. They collect about a third of Cairo's trash and traditionally haul it by donkey cart, as seen in this Oct. 20 photo. Largely scorned by Egyptian society, the trash scavengers recently lost one woman who had worked tirelessly for their well-being -- Sister Emmanuelle, a Belgium-born French nun who died Oct. 20 at age 99.

See more photos of zabaleen at work and read more about them in this week's photo essay, "Cairo's Trash Collectors Down in the Dumps."

Photo: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images