By Jeremy Au Yong

Lima, Peru - United States President George W. Bush, bidding farewell to the international stage, yesterday made a staunch defence of free trade as he urged countries to resist the lure of protectionism in these troubled times.

Speaking to a group of 900 business leaders that applauded at every opportunity, he pressed the case for the three freedoms that, he said, propelled economic growth: that of markets, trade and people.

'In the wake of the financial crisis, free markets have come in for very harsh criticism from the left and from the right,' said Mr Bush. 'The burden of history is unmistakeable, the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement in the markets, it's too much.'

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Asia set for bigger role in new world order: Yeo

By Jeremy Au Yong

Lima, Peru - When the dust has settled on the current economic crisis, the world will need to be rebuilt, both top-down and bottom-up.

Foreign Minister George Yeo shared his vision of the challenge to come last Friday, speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CEO Summit here.

The world, he said, was in the midst of an 'epochal change', one landmarked by the dramatic three months from the Beijing Olympics on Aug 8 to the election of the African-American Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

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