There are too many variables -- both old and late-breaking -- to predict the result of today's presidential election: repression in Tibet and Chinese blustering on Taiwan, triumphal strutting by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) retreat on Greater China initiatives and so on. But the election has been the KMT's to lose.

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By Michael Hsiao 蕭新煌
Voters today participate in one of the nation's most important elections since it first directly elected its president in 1996. The election will essentially decide whether this new democracy can be deepened through better governance; it will also determine if Taiwan's newfound national identity can be consolidated through the referendum to enter the UN.

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By Fan Yun and Tseng Chao-yuan 范雲，曾昭媛
Although the proportion of women in the legislature has reached 30 percent, all the participants in the Mar. 9 presidential candidate debate were male: the two candidates, the host and the questioners. Women's issues and gender issues were not mentioned once.

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European firms are no longer so reliant upon the US market, their raw materials are cheaper and the falling dollar has cushioned them from oil price hikes
By Mark Landler
When the euro tiptoed above US$1.30 four years ago, finance ministers from Germany, France and Austria wrung their hands about how it would hurt Europe's exporters, some muttering that the US should put its economic house in order.

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By Vaclav Havel, Andri Glucksmann, Yohei Sasakawa, El Hassan Bin
The recent events in Tibet and adjoining provinces are causes for deep concern. Indeed, the dispersal of a peaceful protest march organized by Tibetan monks, which led to a wave of unrest that was brutally suppressed by the Chinese military and police, has caused indignation all over the democratic world.

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By David Leonhardt
Raise your hand if you don't quite understand this whole financial crisis.

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Editor's note: Johnny Neihu is on leave. [ FULL STORY ]