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Taiwan storm set to get louder By Chris Hogg BBC News, Hong Kong Tensions between the two sides are running high It is 12 months since China passed a law authorising the use of force against Taiwan if the self-governing island moved towards formal independence. On the face of it, it looks like nothing much has changed since then. Both sides are still flinging insults at each other. China is still refusing to talk to Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian. The "status quo", as people call it, remains in place. But conversations with the leading players and analysts who monitor their...

GIDDY WITH FAILURE, Democrats are breaking new ground in political strategy. Deep in a hole, they are digging still deeper. They have found a new method of dealing with setbacks: They find out what caused them, and do it again. Having unexpectedly lost four Senate seats in the 2002 midterms because of their obstruction and carping, they decided they hadn't attacked and obstructed enough. With a bare majority in the 107th Congress, they used a technical loophole to keep Bush's judges from reaching the floor of the Senate. In the 108th, with a bare minority, they are using a technical...