IRAN:
Iran to hang nine more over election unrest
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it would soon hang nine more rioters over the unrest that erupted after the June presidential vote, and the leader of the opposition said such repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution had failed.

"Nine others will be hanged soon. The nine, and the two who were hanged on Thursday, were surely arrested in the recent riots and had links to anti-revolutionary groups," said senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The two men hanged last week were among a group of 11 people sentenced to death on charges including "waging war against God" and being members of armed groups. is involved in the Darkhovin oilfield.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61122R20100202?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly

TAIWAN:
China versus Taiwan: How the political standoff may end
FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61111H20100202?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c0.206307:b30194914:z0
EXCERPT:
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China has expressed fury at Washington's announcement of a new arms package for self-ruled Taiwan, saying it threatens the task of peaceful reunification between the two sides.

China and Taiwan, once at the brink of war before a thaw in relations, have avoided discussing their political future and instead focused on forming closer economic ties.

A non-violent solution is iffy more than 60 years after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war, which forced the defeated Nationalist Party (KMT) to flee to Taiwan.

China, the world's third-largest economy and a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, claims sovereignty over ethnically Chinese Taiwan and has not renounced the use of force to bring the proudly democratic island under its control...

TIBET:
China warns U.S. on Dalai Lama, says to punish arms firms
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61111C20100202?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said a possible meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama would further harm Sino-U.S. relations, and vowed to go ahead with unspecified sanctions against U.S. firms selling arms to Taiwan...