Taipei  - About 400 artists from 60 nations are to take part in Taian's Sky Lantern festival to pray for world peace, it was reported Monday.

The annual Pinghsi Sky Lantern festival is scheduled to take place in the mountain town of Pinghsi outside Taipei from January 26 to February 9.

Artists from 60 countries, including China, Japan and Mexico, have been invited for the "Light Up the World" event - and release their own sky lanterns - on February 7, United Daily News reported.

Taipei  - Taiwan on Sunday began to ban smoking in all indoor public places, becoming the 17th country in the world and the second in Asia to take the move to protect people's health.

The ban is a victory for anti-smoking campaigners and health workers, but is a nightmare for die-hard smokers who now can only smoke at home or in the open.

"Since Ireland banned indoor smoking in 2004, 14 countries and one territory - Bermuda - have followed suit, and Taiwan is the 17th worldwide to ban indoor smoking," the John Tung Foundation, the leader in Taiwan's anti-smoking campaign, said in a statement.

Taipei - Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) will join Japans's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in developing regional jets, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Saturday.

Mitsubishi has invited AIDC to jointly develop regional jets due to AIDC 's capability in aircraft design and manufacturing, CNA quoted Economics Minister Yin Chi-ming as saying.

AIDC and Mitsubishi have formed a "partnership relationship" on developing commercial regional jets. Yin will visit Mitsubishi's aeronautics department next week to push the deal, CNA said.

Taipei - Taiwan will take a giant step in its anti-smoking campaign Sunday by starting to ban indoor smoking across the island, the Department of Health (DPH) said Saturday.

Under the new rule, all offices and indoor facilities like department stores, restaurants, cafes, airports and railway station will ban smoking.

Smoking will also be banned in indoor working environments where three or more people work together.

People who violate the rule by lighting up in these places will face a 2,000-10,000 Taiwan dollar (60-100 US dollar) fine.

Taipei - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip maker, saw its December sales fall nearly 55 cent year-on-year due to the global slump, the company said Friday

In December 2008, TSMC 's sales totalled 13.2 billion Taiwan dollars (399 million US dollars), down 31.8 per cent from November and down 54.8 per cent from December
2007, the firm said in a statement.

January-December sales totalled 322 billion Taiwan dollars (9.8 billion US), up 2.6 per cent from 2007.

Taipei  - A Taiwan man has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years' imprisonment for posing as a shaman and having sex with a young woman under the pretense of an exorcism, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Hsinchu District Court in west Taiwan sentenced Yang Jih-hua, 59, on Thursday on his conviction of rape, for having sex with the victim 13 times in 2007 and impregnating her, the Liberty Times said.