This is the magic of Davos. Participants find themselves seated beside a tycoon at breakfast, a Nobel Prize winner at lunch and a President, potentate or a future crook at dinner.

According to a South Korean publication, Daily NK, "[North Korean] authorities are handing down six-month sentences in a labor-training camp to those who didn't participate in gatherings to mourn the death of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il." The same sentence is dished out to those who did attend organized grief sessions, "but didn't weep hard enough, or faked their tears, or didn't seem genuine."

THE CANADIAN PRESS -- OTTAWA - John Baird will make his first trip to China this weekend as foreign affairs minister, continuing the Conservative gove...