RETURN TO THE DARK DAYS?: Chen Tsung-yi said Investigation Bureau agents searched his residence, which he says was a warning over his links to pro-independence groups
By Loa Iok-sin, Wu Jen-chieh and Liu Ching-hou
Pro-independence New Taiwan Weekly magazine news desk director Chen Tsung-yi (陳宗逸) has accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government of intimidating him because of his political ideology.

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CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: Admiral Timothy Keating said the US was happy with the progress being made by both Taiwan and China on the cross-strait relationship
By William Lowther
Admiral Timothy Keating, head of the US Pacific Command, said on Thursday in Washington that while he continued to closely monitor the Chinese military, he believed that tensions in the Taiwan Strait had been reduced over the last two months.

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Sporadic violence is flaring along the Gaza-Israel border as a shaky truce reaches its expiry date.

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US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has ordered aides to draw up plans for closing the “war on terror” prison at Guantanamo Bay, a declared priority for US president-elect Barack Obama, a spokesman said on Thursday.

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Japan’s central bank cut its key interest rate to 0.1 percent yesterday, joining the US Federal Reserve in lowering borrowing rates to nearly zero percent amid a worsening outlook for the global economy.

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