DIPLOMACY: The AIT chief told Chen Shui-bian yesterday that he would only respond in private to his questions about the Cairo Declaration and so-called `1992 consensus'
By Mo Yan-chih
Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) expression of willingness to resume cross-strait negotiations could be interpreted as a goodwill gesture from China and a positive sign for the development of cross-strait relations, president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said.

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By Jerry Lin
Amid soaring international crude oil prices, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation's only publicly traded oil refiner, said yesterday that it would raise its wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by NT$2.8 and NT$3.1 per liter today.

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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged "no retreat" in the fight against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, as thousands of protesters demanded he resign over the crackdown and extremists fired rockets into the US-protected Green Zone.

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North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range missiles yesterday, the country's latest apparent angry response to the new South Korean government's tougher stance on Pyongyang.

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TENSION: While all monasteries in the Tibetan capital remained closed yesterday, protesters scaled the walls of a UN building in Nepal seeking foreign intervention
Tibetan activists voiced concern yesterday over possible Chinese government retaliation against Buddhist monks who disrupted a stage-managed media tour of the riot-torn region's capital, Lhasa.

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