Taipei - The Taiwan dollar surged to a six-week high of 32.72 to the US dollar Wed

Taipei - Two giant pandas offered by China to Taiwan are due to arrive in Taipei on December 23, reported Eva Air, the carrier assigned to transport the two animals.

Eva Air spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei said the pandas (named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan from the Chinese words meaning unification) will be picked up from Chengdu the capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan and brought to Taipei.

A group of officials, veterinarians, animal caretakers and reporters from Taipei will take the jet to Chengdu to escort the pandas, he added.

Taipei - A Taiwan newspaper and a private foundation on Tuesday said that people had chosen the Chinese character Luan - chaos - as the Word of the Year for 2008.

Out of the 61,624 people who cast votes, 7,936 people chose Luan, the United Daily News (UDN) and the Hsu Yuan-chih Memorial Foundation said.

The UDN and the foundation launched the campaign to select the Word of the Year in October, inviting the public to find one word to summarize the situation of Taiwan in
2008.

Taipei - Taiwan is to provide visa exemptions to certain foreign nationals who have already obtained visas from "advanced countries," press reports said Monday.

Starting January 20, 2009, citizens from India, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia will be allowed to visit Taiwan without a visa if their passports are stamped with permanent residency visas from Canada or the United States, according to the Central News Agency (CNA).

Taipei - Taiwan's ruling party chief Wu Poh-hsiung returned home Saturday after visiting Japan to boost ties and achieving Tokyo's promise to back Taiwan joining the World Health Organization (WHO).

During the week-long visit, Wu, chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party, met with Japanese officials and held two news conferences to convey President Ma Ying-jeou's message that Taiwan values its ties with Japan while improving ties with China.

Taipei  - The rivalry between Taiwan and China has eased significantly in the past year, following the return to power of the Beijing-friendly Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT).

But it will be difficult for the two sides to achieve a real truce, given the "one China" principle of Beijing, and Taipei's insistence on political sovereignty, analysts said.

Many are also skeptical over whether Beijing is willing to allow Taipei to remain independent indefinitely, though it has been on good terms with the KMT government.