The U.S. is ratcheting up its opposition to an obscure Taiwan referendum. That's especially odd since the vote -- whatever its outcome -- will have no practical effect on Taiwan's standing or on the cross-strait status quo. The referendum, if it goes ahead as planned together with the presidential vote on March 22, will ask Taiwan voters if the island should seek to join the United Nations with the name "Taiwan."

Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the referendum a "provocative policy", adding, "It unnecessarily raises tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and it promises no real benefits for the people of Taiwan on the international stage." Certainly, the vote won't change Taiwan's status. With China on the UN Security Council and only 24 small countries recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign state, any Taiwanese bid for UN membership -- no matter which name it uses -- is doomed.

Londoners have been anticipating the arrival of Matisse's The Dancers and other treasures from Russia's Hermitage Museum, but now the paintings are caught in a diplomatic row, as reporter Sophie Grove writes from London:  

 Diplomatic wrangles almost never touch the lofty world of Art. But in London, The Royal Academy's hotly anticipated exhibition 'From Russia' is suddenly caught in the cross fire of disintegrating international relations. This week the Russian government retracted its promise to loan 120 masterpieces from the Hermitage in St Petersburg and the Pushkin museum in Moscow.

The show should have been an example of cultural diplomacy at its best. Vladimir Putin had been lined-up to write a forward to the Catalogue and was to fly over to join Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the opening ceremony in January. The works, including Matisse’s The Dance, have been splashed tantalizingly all over the London underground for months.  Now -- for the moment at least -- it's all off.

The official line is that insurance issues have prevented the works from making it to London.

The War on Terror has burned through America’s human and financial resources and empowered radical Islam. But for China, it’s been a lucrative reprieve.

However weakened are Sino-US ties – and they’ve taken a beating this year – the most important trans-Pacific relationship would be a lot worse if not for the Bush administration’s pre-occupation with the Middle East. His predecessor will likely declare a victory of sorts in Iraq and Afghanistan and slowly draw down the US military presence there. The White House will focus on domestic concerns like health care, immigration, and trade. Media interest in the terrorist threat will wane. (If there is a clash of civilizations and no one around to videotape it, does it get posted on YouTube?)

Latin America's rainmakers are not in the habit of eating humble pie. Until just the other day, after all, hyper-popular leaders like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could do just about what they pleased, leaving their political foes little choice but to stand by and stew in frustration. But if recent events are any indication, the Latin charismacrats may have to get used to an unsavory set of new rules.

Across the region, democracy is biting back. On Dec. 1, Venezuelans handed Chávez a stinging defeat by turning down a 69-point referendum proposing everything from curbing private property to unlimited reelection. It was El Comandante's first loss at the ballot box, and a sign that the ballyhooed Bolivarian revolution will not be implemented by steamroller. Nor are things looking so rosy for Chávez's closest disciple, Morales, the coca-leaf grower-turned-messianic leader, who vowed to recreate Bolivia by recasting the constitution to redeem the country's teeming poor and forgotten. Now he presides over a nation riven ethnically, between the destitute indigenous majority and the relatively well-heeled light skinned heirs of the Spanish colonialists; geographically, between the hardscrabble Altiplano and the fertile, oil-and-gas-rich lowlands; and ideologically, between the left-wing nationalists who blame foreigners for Bolivia's woes and the globalists who want desperately to connect to world markets. So volatile is the political climate, the constituent assembly had to finish drafting the new constitution under military guard.