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TAIPEI - Proposed Chinese legislation that would give a mandate for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland would provide a legal basis for an attack on the island, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has said. Mr Chen, speaking for the first time on the mainland's proposal to adopt a reunification law, said he was very concerned about it. 'China is undertaking a legal battle. If Taiwan does not follow, it will undertake a military battle,' he was quoted by the United Daily News as saying during a visit to the southern county of Tainan late on Thursday. 'The reunification law...

Vatican, Mar. 08 (CWNews.com) - As he met with Pope John Paul II (bio - news) on March 6, German President Johannes Rau gave the Pontiff credit for the reunification of his country. "Germany owes her unity to Poland and to the action of the Pope, without which she would still have a long road to go toward reunification," Rau said. Rau was speaking extemporaneously during a formal reception, as he presented the Pope with a miniature of the Brandenburg Gate: a symbol of divided Germany.

LEIPZIG, Germany (AFP) - German reunification in 1990 has been a failure from an economic point of view, the head of leading economic research institute Ifo said in a television interview. Since the wall came down in 1990, economic developments in the former communist east have been "worse and more catastrophic than even the biggest pessimists had predicted," Hans-Werner Sinn told the regional eastern German television station MDR. The Ifo president said that wages in eastern Germany should be lowered so that the region can remain competitive with eastern European countries. "In the medium term, wages in eastern Germany should...

A diva will be disrobed in the centre of the German capital this evening, assisted by the former US president Bill Clinton who is being flown in for the unzipping ceremony. In a huge fireworks and champagne extravaganza, Berlin's 18th-century Brandenburg Gate, dubbed "the diva" by locals, is to be revealed to the public for the first time in more than two years, following an extensive facelift. The unveiling of Germany's most famous monument - it is the main symbol on the country's nine-month old euro coins - will be witnessed by hundreds of politicians, celebrities and members of royal...

Berlin — President Bush stressed the decades-long ties between the United States and Germany on Thursday in a letter sent on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of German reunification. Mr. Bush's words were in sharp contrast to those from the U.S. administration last month, which bristled during Germany's election campaign as Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder used his opposition to any U.S. military action against Iraq to gain support. In a letter addressed to German President Johannes Rau and the people of Germany, Mr. Bush wrote that the United States stood with Germany during the Cold War and that "the end...

<p>A delegation of Chinese specialists on Taiwan said the mainland is prepared to give Taiwan broad freedom to follow its own economic and political path after reunification and suggested that the island could stage baseball and other events for the 2008 Olympic Games awarded to Beijing.</p>