Taipei - Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corporation, expecting recovery of the global economy by 2012, plans to order 100 container ships and boost its competitiveness, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Economic Daily News cited Evergreen Marine owner Chang Jung-fa as saying that Evergreen plans to order the new ships to expand its fleet and to replace 30-year-old ships.

Evergreen, Taiwan's largest and the world's fourth-largest container shipping operator, has 186 container vessels, half of which are self-owned and the rest rented.

Taipei  - Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp, expecting recovery of the global economy by 2012, plans to order 100 container ships and boost its competitiveness, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Economic Daily News cited Evergreen Marine owner Chang Jung-fa as saying that Evergreen plans to order the new ships to expand its fleet and to replace
30-year-old ships.

Evergreen, Taiwan's largest and the world's fourth-largest container shipping operator, has 178 container vessels, out of which 100 are self-owned and the rest rented.

Taipei  - A computer breakdown at the Taipei international airport continued Tuesday, causing chaos with customs officers hand- recording departing passengers' data and passengers forming long queues, according to radio reports.

The computer glitch, which began at about 6:45 am Monday, continued Tuesday, prompting Immigration Minister Hsieh Li-kung to show up at the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei to supervise repair work, Broadcasting Corp of China said.

Taipei  - A Taiwan watch thief has been arrested after sending the stolen expensive watches to their owner to estimate their value, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Tsai Chin-hsin, 37, broke into a house on December 28 in Hsinchu, west Taiwan, and made off with nine watches and some jewellery, the China Times reported.

Believing the watches might be quite expensive, he asked an associate identified by his surname, Chuang, to take the stolen timepieces to a watch shop in Hsinchu to be appraised.

Taipei - Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves posted a month- on-month increase to a record high of 291.71 billion US dollars in December on interest and other gains, the Central Bank reported Monday.

"Our foreign exchange reserves stood at 291.707 billion US dollars as of end of December, up 11.022 billion dollars from the end of November," the bank said in a press statement.

It said the increase - the biggest in history - was mainly due to interest rate gains and a valuation increase of the euro, the Japanese yen and Swiss franc against the dollar.

Taipei - Taiwan, aiming at advancing to the top eight in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, on Monday announced the preliminary selection of players for the tournament.

The Chinese-Taipei Professional Baseball League announced the names of 48 players, including 11 who are playing for US teams and six playing for Japanese teams.

Wang Chien-ming, the Taiwan pitcher serving the New York Yankees, cannot play for Taiwan in the 2009 World Baseball Classic because Yankees refused to let him take leave.