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Owen Bennett Jones introduces personal stories from ´óÏó´«Ã½ correspondents abroad. Jennifer Pak in Malaysia profiles Wan Azizah, wife of Anwar Ibrahim; Roger Harrabin ponders the power of waterfalls.

The limits of loyalty

Malaysia is waiting for the verdict to be handed down in the sodomy trial of the country's main opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim. In fact it's the second trial he has faced for this alleged offence. In 2000 he received a nine year sentence for sodomy although it was quashed in 2004. But now he is on trial again, and with many expecting a guilty verdict, he has been touring the country to put across his case: that the charge is politically motivated.

One person who has stood firmly by his side is - as Jennifer Pak explains - his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Isamail, who has given her husband unwavering support.

On the rocks?

Roger Harrabin was recently lucky enough to visit not just one but two of the greatest natural wonders of the world - and by coincidence they were both waterfalls: the well-known Niagara Falls between the USA and Canada, and the majestic Victoria Falls of Zimbabwe.

The two views he enjoyed provoked contrasting reactions. The problem is that his love of the environment means that when he sees human development – or at least too much inappropriate development in places of natural beauty - he begins to worry.