INTERNATIONAL PROFILE: The president said that sometimes Taiwan's interests do not coincide with those of the US and vice versa but he would work to find a consensus
By Ko Shu-ling and Mo Yan-chih
Rebuffing US criticism, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said a planned referendum on a UN bid was not an election ploy or a provocative act but a means to safeguard the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and ensure Taiwan's democracy.

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was hospitalized yesterday for psychological stress and exhaustion a day after suddenly announcing his resignation, his doctors said, compounding political confusion in the world's second-largest economy.

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`QUIRK OF NATURE': While Sumatra continued to shake yesterday, one expert said the Indian Ocean region was fortunate to have escaped a repeat of the 2004 disaster
AP, PADANG, Indonesia

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The Pentagon announced possible military sales to Taiwan worth more than US$2.2 billion on Wednesday, including a dozen P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and SM-2 anti-aircraft missiles.

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QUESTION OF TIMIMG:: Senator Barack Obama said that the Bush administration's `bar for success is so low that it is almost buried in the sand'
Democrats assailed US President George W. Bush's tentative plan to withdraw up to 30,000 US troops from Iraq by next July even before he was to announce it yesterday.

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