CHINA A Taiwan Candidate Has Beijing Baring Its Teeth With Taiwan's presidential elections set for March 18, the contender Beijing warns it won't tolerate as successor to President Lee Teng-hui is navigating carefully. Chen Shui-bian is a blunt-speaking pol best known for advocating independence from China. But these days his TV ads feature Bao Gong, a legendary Song dynasty judge known for executing corrupt officials during the 11th century. By shifting focus, Chen has climbed to first place in the polls and introduced a dangerous new element to Beijing-Taipei relations. With a third of the electorate still undecided, Chen is now backed by 20% of voters. That gives him a marginal lead over independent James Chu-Yul Soong-- and a decisive jump on Lien Chan, the lackluster candidate of the ruling Kuomintang. If Chen builds on this lead, tensions with Beijing are bound to increase. As the firebrand leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, Chen inflamed Beijing even while he was mayor of Taipei in the mid-1990s. Published january 12, 2000 Read more | Top RUSSIA Putin's Country Can the former KGB spymaster deliver on promises to fix the chaotic Russian economy? Until a few months ago, he was virtually unknown even in his own Russia. Trained as a lawyer, he spent much of his working life as an economic spy in Germany, scooping up Western technology for the KGB, whose successor agency he eventually came to run. Now, at 47, Vladimir V. Putin has been catapulted into the Russian presidency by Boris N. Yeltsin's surprise resignation on Dec. 31. Unless he makes a horrible mistake, the former spymaster is almost certain to win a mandate to lead Russia for a four-year term when voters head to the polls for early elections on Mar. 26. Published january 12, 2000 Read more | Top USA Tax Cuts: Will Clinton Snooker the GOP - or Burn the Dems? Every year, President Clinton uses his State of the Union address to goad the GOP into jumping through a new hoop. Last year, it was his ''save Social Security first'' vow, which Republicans wound up endorsing even more vigorously. Now Clinton has a new stunt: He is challenging the GOP to cut taxes--as long as relief goes to working stiffs, instead of fat cats. Clinton's probable proposal will be a $250 billion, 10-year measure--mainly tax breaks for health care, education, and savings. It falls far short of Republican front-runner George W. Bush's $1.4 trillion plan and is much smaller than the $792 billion GOP bill vetoed in 1999. The Prez could certainly have buried taxes as a legislative issue for this year, too, so why is he putting them back in play? Published january 12, 2000 Read more | Top Fast and Slow at the Fed The Senate is rushing to confirm Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to a fourth four-year term. Within hours of President Clinton's January 4 renomination of Greenspan, the Senate Banking Committee set hearings for January 26. Senate confirmation is a certainty, though it could be delayed by populist Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who has criticized the Fed's recent rate increases. Clinton's other nominees aren't faring so well. After a yearlong search, the President nominated ex-Chase Manhattan Bank exec Carol J. Parry in August. Her nomination is unlikely to be acted upon before the elections because Republicans hope to name their own candidate. And the Senate has yet to reappoint Roger W. Ferguson as Fed governor. His term ends on Jan. 31, but he can remain vice-chairman until a new governor is named. Harkin's expected hold on Greenspan could produce a deal approving both Greenspan and Ferguson. Published january 12, 2000 Top Waxman's Challenge Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) is laying the groundwork to challenge John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) for the chairmanship of the House Commerce Committee if the Dems retake the House. Dingell, Commerce's ranking Democrat, led the panel from 1981-95. But Hill sources say Waxman, Commerce's No. 2 Dem, is picking up support from colleagues irked at Dingell over gun control, clean air, and health reform. Published january 12, 2000 Top EU Kohl´s Scandal open CDU for a younger Generation? Who could lead a new CDU? Already, younger faces in the party are gaining power. Peter Muller, 44, minister president in Saarland; Christian Wulff, 40, opposition leader in Lower Saxony; and Roland Koch, 41, minister president of Hesse, are prominent among the rising leaders. Among other things, they propose reforming the costly pension system and dismantling the rigid code of regulations largely responsible for Germany's anemicgrowth and chronic unemployment. Just such innovations are needed if the CDU wants to realize its potential and distinguish its agenda from that of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The Young Turks - who are untainted by the Kohl affair because they stand outside his inner circle - seem to be waiting for the scandal to run its course before stepping into the resulting power vacuum. But there are already signs of impatience among them. On Jan. 4, Michael Luther, 43 and prominent in the parliamentary faction, called on Kohl to resign from the Bundestag. Published january 12, 2000 Read more | Top BRAZIL Can Brazil's Reborn Bolsa Keep Rebounding? Alfredo N. Rizkallah, the upbeat chairman of São Paulo's hot exchange, thinks shares are still a bargain Brazil's stock market has soared this year. The Bovespa index, a weighted measure of the most-traded issues on the São Paulo Stock Exchange, set another record on Dec. 22, closing at 15,916, up 134.6% in local currency from a year ago. It also soared about 45% in dollar terms. That represents a major turnaround from the beginning of the year, when currency turmoil forced Brazil to abandon artificially tieing its currency to the U.S. dollar. Largely as a result, Brazil's currency, the real, is off 33% against the dollar since the beginning of the year. Published january 12, 2000 Read more | Top JAPAN Is the Bullet Train Speeding the country to Debtsville? Politicians are spending billions to expand the overbuilt system when they ought to concentrate on exporting the technology. The hearts of Japanese train lovers swelled with pride recently. On Dec. 28, Taiwan awarded to a Japanese consortium the negotiating rights for the construction of a $17.4 billion, high-speed bullet service connecting Taipei and the southern city of Kaohsiung. Published january 12, 2000 Read more | Top