In this regard, the positive sense merely describes a truism.

BRASILIA It is, perhaps, a truism for Brazil s citizens that their country is and always will be a peaceful one.

And the reason that he won t embrace reform is that he can t, because that old truism absolute power corrupts absolutely has proven itself once more.

TOKYO If the most dangerous moment for any dictatorship is when it starts to reform, North Korea looks ready to turn that truism on its head.

NEW YORK Zimbabwe s election appears, once again, to confirm a truism Africa only seems to make international headlines when disasters strike a drought, a coup, a war, a genocide, or, as in the case of Robert Mugabe, grossly incompetent government.

The two weeks since Taiwan's disputed presidential election of March 20 only the third such democratic vote in the country's history has tested this truism almost to the breaking point. Taiwan's young democracy must now cope with the balancing act that President Chen Shui bian's re election has thrust upon it.