Taipei  - Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan's largest, is losing its competitiveness in both passenger and cargo volume, a government report said Saturday.

According to the Transport Ministry report carried by Taiwan's Central News Agency, Taoyuan was number 15 in the world in cargo volume in 2007, down two places from 2006.

In Asia-Pacific alone, the airport was ranked number six for cargo, the same as 2006.

As for passenger volume in the Asia-Pacific, Taoyuan ranked 14 in 2007, down one place from 2006.

Taipei - Twenty-nine young survivors of the deadly earthquake in China's Sichuan Province were in Taiwan for a holiday to help them recover from the trauma of the May 12 quake which killed 70,000 people, reports said Saturday.

The children, aged between seven years and their teens, were guests of the Chinatrust Charity Foundation, a Taiwanese charity.

Having visited Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and the Taipei Zoo, the group on Saturday arrived in Nantou County in central Taiwan, to visit the site of the September 21, 1999 earthquake which killed 2,321 people and injuring 8,000.

Taipei - Taiwan's foreign currency reserves dropped by nearly 1 billion US dollars in September due to the net outflow of foreign capital, the central bank said on Friday.

By the end of September, Taiwan's foreign currency reserves totaled 281.1 billion US dollars, down 957 million US dollars from August.

The figure makes Taiwan the holder of the world's fifth-largest foreign currency reserves after China, Japan, Russia and India, the central bank said.

Taipei - A Boeing 747-400 jetliner of Taiwan's major carrier China Airlines was hit by severe air turbulence on its way from Hong Kong to Bangkok Thursday, resulting in the injury of 21 people, the airlines said.

"Flight CI 641 arrived in Bangkok safely, and the injured, including, 5 crew members and 16 passengers, received hospital treatment," the airlines said in a news statement.

A total of 147 passengers and 18 crew members were on board the plane when the turbulence occurred without warning over Thai airspace, the airline said.

Taipei  - A Taiwan company began Tuesday to recall a batch of cheese cracker sandwiches imported from Malaysia after finding the toxic chemical melamine in the biscuits.

The Golden Kestrel Co Ltd ordered the recall after test results at two laboratories showed traces of melamine in the Regimen House cheese cracker sandwich, the company said on its website.

The result from one lab showed the cracker contained 29 parts per million (ppm) of melamine while the other test showed its melamine concentration is 17 ppm.

Taipei  - Police in southern Taiwan are looking for a man who rode his motorbike naked through a city's main streets for one hour, TV reports said Tuesday.

The man, aged between 30-40, rode a motorbike in Tainan City for about one hour on Monday in a light drizzle caused by typhoon Jangmi, cable TV channel TVBS and ETTV reported. He wore only a crash helmet.

Although a lot of people stayed home because of the typhoon, many saw him and took photos with their cell phone cameras, TVBS said.

TVBS broadcast a video clip which showed the man riding a motorbike and sometimes honking the horn.