It's hard to understand the logic and attitudes behind the argument that this nation's passports should only bear the words "Republic of China" (ROC) but not "Taiwan." It is beyond doubt that people living in Taiwan are different from those living in the PRC.

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Despite frantic efforts by leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, it's the story that won't go away. \nAs spies and spin doctors trade insults, the mystery of Iraq's arsenal grows ever deeper
By Peter Beaumont, Kamal Ahmed, Ed Vulliamy and David Fickling
Every week senior senators in the US Congress sit down to a policy-makers' lunch. It is usually a pretty ho-hum affair -- an occasion for political backslapping. But last Tuesday as the grand panjandrums of the Grand Old Party assembled, US Vice President Dick Cheney had pressing business on his mind. That business, unusually, was to reassure the assembled senators that the administration of US President George W. Bush was not, as some had alleged, lying about weapons of mass destruction. It was to tell them that it did have credible evidence before American soldiers were sent to war that Iraq retained those weapons.

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As political fallout rains down on London and Washington amid the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, another controversial justification must also be revisited: economic sanctions directly responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million Iraqis.

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By Chen Hurng-yu 陳鴻瑜
China has on several occasions recently tried to sabotage Taiwan's official membership status in the WTO. The pressure it puts on Taiwan's room to maneuver internationally is repeated and clear evidence that cross-strait relations are not warming, and that China's stance towards Taiwan is not softening. In this situation, Taipei should seriously consider changing its foreign policy and depart from the 1971 framework for cross-strait relations.

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By Chiou Chang-tay 王昌泰
A US scholar of politics once said that the vice president is actually the loneliest politician in the US White House.

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Facing up to reality

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