Following months of pressure from rights advocates and high-profile celebrities, film director Steven Spielberg last month opted out of his role as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics, a move that was praised by many -- except those in Beijing.

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By Bob Kuo 郭峰淵
Thirteen years ago, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government proposed the establishment of an Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center (APROC). Two years later, then-minister of economic affairs Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) said that his ministry had spent billions of NT dollars and published more than 100 papers over a period of eight years in order to make the center a reality.

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By Cho Hui-wan 卓慧菀
Recently, the two presidential candidates have ardently debated the idea of a common market for China and Taiwan. In fact, regional trade agreements (RTAs) have been a global trend since the 1990s. But people should learn a little more about RTAs.

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By Wang Dan 王丹
The results of the presidential election will have a significant impact on the development of cross-state relations. But regardless of whether Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) wins the election, both candidates should pay attention to the effect on Chinese democratization and cross-strait relations.

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By Joe Nocera
We are playing Russian roulette with the American food supply," thundered Wayne Pacelle.

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By Joseph E. Stiglitz
With March 20 marking the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, it's time to take stock of what has happened. In our new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict, Harvard University's Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the economic cost of the war to the US to be US$3 trillion, and the costs to the rest of the world to be another US$3 trillion -- far higher than the Bush administration's estimates before the war. The Bush team not only misled the world about the war's possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as the war has gone on.

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By Chang Jae-soon
South Korean priests armed only with Catholic vestments and crosses fought military-backed dictators in the 1970s and 1980s with hunger strikes and street rallies, giving pro-democracy activists sanctuary at churches.

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