Phnom Penh  - Up to 12 Taiwanese tourists were injured in Cambodia on Sunday when a bridge they were crossing collapsed, officials said.

All members of the tour group, which was making its way to a tour boat on the Tonle Sap River near Siem Reap northern Cambodia, had to be retrieved from the water when the recently constructed bridge collapsed about 1000 am (0300 GMT), a Tourism Department spokesperson said.

"The 12 people sustained minor injuries and were taken to a nearby hospital after the accident," the spokesperson said.

"The members of the group were all aged between 50 and 60 and were making their way to a tour boat for a sight-seeing trip," he added.

Taipei  - Taiwan's Defense Ministry came under Sunday from parliamentarians for quietly removing the military attache titles from officers stationed in the US.

"Didn't those responsible for decision making at the defense ministry know nothing about the consequence of the move? It is a belittling of our sovereignty," said Lin Yu-fang, parliamentarian of the ruling Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT).

He said it took Taiwan great efforts to convince the US to allow the island to keep the military attache posts after formal diplomatic relations between Taipei and Washington were cut in 1979.

Taipei  - Taiwan sent its ruling party chief Sunday to assure Japan that Taipei values their relations while improving it ties with China.

During the week-long visit, Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of the pro-China Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), will meet with officials from all political parties of Japan and call on Japanese politicians who are friendly to Taiwan, the KMT said in a statement.

According to the statement, President Ma Ying-jeou asked Wu to tell Japan that Taiwan values their relationship and will not neglect Japan while developing ties with China.

Taipei - The Archbishop of the Taipei Archdiocese will invite Pope Benedict XVI to visit Taiwan next year, a newspaper said on Saturday.

According to the Taipei Times, Archbishop John Hung led a delegation to the Vatican on Saturday to report for the first time to the pope on the state of Taiwan's dioceses, and invite the pontiff to the island.

The invitation seeks his attendance at next year's celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Catholic Church in Taiwan.