Taipei - Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves dropped slightly to 278.15 billion US dollars at the end of October from the previous month, the island's central bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 2.98-billion-US-dollar, or 3-per-cent, month-on-month decrease was however an increase of 7.84 billion US dollars over the same period last year, the bank said.

Net foreign capital outflows, including net selling in the local stock market by foreign institutional investors to remit funds abroad, were the main factor for the decline, the bank said.

The bank has kept its foreign exchange reserves in the denominations of euros, US dollars, Japanese yen and other major currencies in various major overseas banks.

Taipei - A Taiwan food company will take over the island's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, it was confirmed on Tuesday.

In a letter to the press, the China Times Group said the Want-Want Group has purchased the China Times for a price of 20.4 billion Taiwan dollars (600 million US dollars). The two sides have signed a memorandum of understanding.

"The Want-Want Group will carry on the spirit and values of the China Times Group and will perform social responsibilities," the statement said.

Taipei (Taiwan), Nov. 4 : The heads of the two main negotiating bodies of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan sat down together in Taipei on Tuesday morning for their first ever summit in Taiwan.

Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland''s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and his island counterpart Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, met at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.

Taipei - Chinese negotiator Chen Unlin arrived in Taipei Monday for the highest-level talks between Taipei and Beijing in half a century.

Chen and his 74-member delegation arrived in a chartered Air China plane which landed at the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei at 11:45 am.

The talks will begin at the Grand Hotel in Taipei Monday afternoon and last until Thursday.

Taipei  - Nearly 1,000 Taiwanese, Chinese and foreign reporters have applied to cover the upcoming Taiwan-China dialogue - their most important contact in half a century - in Taipei, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Saturday.

Some 800 Taiwan reporters and 200 Chinese and foreign reporters have applied to cover the dialogue to be held in Taipei next week, CNA quoted the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which is in charge of ties with China, as saying.