We are not directly involved in Syria. But we will be working with our partners in the European Union and at the United Nations to see if we can persuade the Syrian authorities to go as I say more in that direction of respect for democracy and human rights.

We sincerely ask the Beijing authorities across the Strait to view the election result from a positive perspective to accept the democratic decision of the Taiwanese people.

I am certainly not an authority on love because there are no authorities on love just those who've had luck with it and those who haven't.

In the fight against terrorism national agencies keep full control over their police forces security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom. They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.