Taipei  - Taiwan's Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp will open a branch in Turkey to expand its global container shipping business, the company said Wednesday.

Yang Ming Anatolia Shipping Agency is a joint venture between Yang Ming and its Turkish agent Egekont Container Transport. It will begin operation in Istanbul, Turkey, on January 1, 2009.

Taipei  - A stray cat has saved the life of a man who fell into an open toilet and was stuck there for two days, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Taipei  - Taiwan is to welcome 2009 with fireworks, prayers and the arrival of a pair of giant pandas China gave the island nation as a symbol of peace.

A spectacular fireworks display will be mounted from the top of Taipei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper, during the countdown to the New Year, the press officer Michael Liu said Friday.

Some 16,000 fireworks will be exploded, 4,000 more than last year, Liu said.

Since its opening in 2004, tens of thousands of Taiwanese have gathered around the 508-metre building to watch the New Year fireworks and enjoy all-night concerts at the foot of the skyscraper.

Taipei  - Taiwan, hit by recession and a rising jobless rate, may cut the number of foreign workers in an effort to provide jobs to Taiwanese, a newspaper said on Monday.

The Liberty Times quoted Tsai Hsun-hsiung, minister without portfolio, as saying that Taipei is studying the possibility of tightening the quota for foreign workers, a move that could create 70,000-80,000 jobs for Taiwanese.

Taipei - Taiwan has decided to stage its major war games every other year instead of holding them annually, a senior military official said Thursday amid a thaw in previously hostile relations with China.

"Because the cycle of the live-fire Hankuang Exercises is too short, making it difficult for the military to have adequate time to correct and adjust shortcomings found in each drill, we have decided to hold the series of drills every other year instead of annually," Defence Minister Chen Chao-min said at a legislative session in Taipei.

Taipei - Taiwan's High Court Wednesday ordered the Taipei District Court to review its earlier ruling in favour of releasing scandal-tainted former president Chen Shui-bian from pre-trial detention.

The decision dealt a fresh blow to Chen, whom prosecutors sought to place back in custody after indicting him Friday on charges of corruption and money laundering.

"While considering the possibility over whether the defendant would flee Taiwan, the high court has also thought of the possibility that the defendant might collude with others to tamper with evidence," said judge Wen Yao-yuan, spokesman of the high court.