One of the notable changes of the new electoral system is how political parties played their cards close to their chest on the identity of candidates.

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Liu Kuan-teh 劉冠德
When it comes to Taiwan's upcoming presidential election, the candidate-centered campaign is often the focal point. But ironically it seems not be the case this time -- especially with respect to the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

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Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang (楊致遠) and executive vice president Michael Callahan apologized to the mother of Chinese journalist Shi Tao (師濤) at a US House of Representatives hearing on Nov. 6 for divulging information that led to her son's 10-year imprisonment. It is rumored that at least four online dissidents were jailed because of information provided by Yahoo.

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Lin Cho-shui 林濁水
After settling internal referendum disputes to ease the possible negative impact on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the KMT faces controversy again over "two-step voting," finding it difficult to counter criticism of hustling support for the party while in effect boycotting the referendum.

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Money is behind the absence of discontent and lack of political argument since the handover of Hong Kong by the British
By Ian Jack
Having breakfast at my hotel in Hong Kong, 60 floors up, I looked down over the harbor and counted the ships. Two dozen of them were moving, bow waves and wakes creasing the narrows between Hong Kong island and Kowloon: ferries, tugs, barges and a couple of Star Line liners returning through the mist from the overnight casino cruises that allow passengers to gamble legally outside Hong Kong's territorial waters. More ships were at anchor, awaiting their place at the container wharves.

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By Jane Perlez
Twenty-five years ago, when US president Ronald Reagan treated Pakistani dictator Muhammad Zia ul-Haq to a White House state dinner, a promising young lawyer out of Cambridge University languished in jail. He had protested too loudly, and too often, about the lack of democracy in his country.

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