RAW DEAL: An opposition legislator said the Bank of China requires Taiwanese banks in Hong Kong to call Taiwan a PRC province to access the Chinese currency
By Shih Hsiu-chuan
Legislators across party lines yesterday accused the Chinese government of attacking the nation's sovereignty by requiring Taiwanese bank branches in Hong Kong to refer to Taiwan as a province of the People's Republic of China.

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Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said yesterday that Taiwan's economy is in good shape and the public should have confidence in the nation.

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POISON: Tehran says the former Iraqi president should be held accountable for the killing of thousands of Iranians during the Iran-Iraq war that spanned the 1980s
Iran wants former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, whose Baghdad trial resumed on Wednesday, to be charged with ordering poison gas attacks that killed thousands of Iranian civilians during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, a top Iranian official said.

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted the goal of a stable Iraq was worth fighting for as he made a surprise trip yesterday to meet his troops and hold talks about the future of the war-torn country.

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A truck driver died and hundreds of people were injured yesterday as a record snowfall hit western and central Japan that also left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, suspended train services and shut down an international airport, officials said.

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Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso yesterday said that China was becoming a "considerable threat" because of its rising military spending and nuclear weapons, sparking a fresh row between the neighbors.

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