Taipei  - Taiwan's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Friday that two of the island's major air carriers were to bring home people from Taiwan who have been stranded in Thailand because of the occupation of Bangkok's two airports by anti-government protestors.

"We have coordinated with China Airlines and EVA Airways to help bring our people back," said Chang Chi-ping, deputy ministry spokesman.

He said about 500 people from Taiwan were still stranded at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport but would be transferred to airports outside Bangkok from where the two airlines would take them back to Taiwan.

Taipei  - Star Cruises, the world's third-largest cruise line and the leading Asia-Pacific cruise line, plans to launch a cruise service between Taiwan and China in early 2009, its Taiwan manager said Friday.

"Since Taiwan has dropped the ban on direct shipping with China, we will apply to launch regular cruise service between Taiwan and China next spring," Andy Lew said.

Taipei - Jailed former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian resumed eating Thursday, ending a hunger strike on the 16th day.

Lee Ta-chu, deputy warden of the Taipei Penitentiary, said that Chen at porridge at noon, and then another bowl of porridge mixed with egg white at dinner.

Chen began a hunger strike to protest what he claimed as "political persecution" by his successor Ma Ying-jeou, a China- friendly president of the Nationalist Party, since he was detained on November 12 on corruption allegations.

Taipei- Taiwan will allow foreign cruise ships to sail directly between Taiwan and China after a recently-signed direct shipping pact becomes effective, an official said Thursday.

Deputy Transport Minister You Fang-lai, quoted by the Broadcasting Corp of China, said that if foreign cruise ships apply to sail directly across the Taiwan Strait, so as to save the cost of having to dock at a third place, "we will approve it."

"That is if they do not pick up Chinese or Taiwan passengers when Chinese or Taiwan ports, and they only carry foreign passengers," he said.

Taipei  - Taiwan has exempted five European countries from visa requirements to promote trade and tourism with them, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

The five countries are Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia. Their citizens will be allowed to stay up to 30 days in Taiwan without applying for a visa, the ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs said on its website.

The visa-exemption measure became effective for Poland, Slovakia and Hungary on October 1, for Lithuania on November 22 and for Estonia on December 1.

Taipei  - Taiwan former president Chen Shui-bian has written a poem to lament his detention on corruption allegations and say he would die for Taiwan's independence, a newspaper said Wednesday.

In the poem "To My Wife," published by the Liberty Times, Chen compared the Taipei Penitentiary, where he is being held, to the Bastille, the Paris prison whose storming in 1789 is considered the beginning of the French Revolution: