Taipei - Madan Kataria, the Indian founder of the international
laughter yoga movement, began a visit to Taiwan Thursday, hoping to
spread his movement from Taiwan into China.

"I am very happy to
be in Taiwan. I hope the laughter yoga movement can spread from Taiwan
to China. There is great potential in China," he told Deutsche
Press-Agentur dpa.

A former physician in Mumbai, Kataria, 53,
was invited by the Taiwan Yoga Laughter Club to visit Taiwan and meet
with the group's members.

During the week-long visit, he will
train leaders of Taiwan laughter clubs, make a speech on laughter yoga

Taipei - A Taiwan court Thursday sentenced a former top intelligence chief to 10 years in prison for his role in a high-profile money laundering scandal implicating the nation's ex-president Chen Shui-bian.

Yeh Sheng-mao, former director of the Investigation Bureau, was convicted on charges of leaking intelligence and helping others gain illicit profits, said judge Huang Chun-ming, a spokesman of the Taipei District Court.

Taipei - Taiwan's cabinet Thursday approved a plan to allow qualified direct institutional investors (QDII) from China to invest 3 per cent, or up to 222 million dollars, of their net worth in the local stocks and futures markets.

The plan, aimed to prop up the sagging bourse on the island, was approved along with 10 public infrastructure projects by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan during a cabinet meeting, according to a Taiwan government news statement.

Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou came under attack Thursday for refusing to allow Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan.

Parliament speaker Wang Jin-pyng urged Ma to reconsider his decision while some lawmakers blasted Ma for kowtowing to China, which sees the Dalai Lama as a "splittist."

"Dalai Lama is the most-trusted and most-revered religious leader. If we look at it from the religious point of view, then we should reconsider," he told parliament.

Wang said Taiwan should find a way to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan while not affecting Taipei-Beijing ties, which have improved since Ma took office in May.

Taipei - Taiwanese food conglomerate Uni-President Group plans to build two more farms to supply young shrimp to Vietnamese exporters, the company said Wednesday.

The company opened its first shrimp farm in Vietnam in April. It employs 60 workers and produces 1 billion shrimp a year, according to Uni-Group. An additional two or three farms are planned for Vietnam in 2009, company spokeswoman Wu Hsu-hui said.

"After the new shrimp farms begin operating, our target is to supply 4 billion young shrimps to Vietnamese shrimp farms each year," she said.

Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou Wednesday ruled out an intended visit next year by Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"The Dalai Lama has visited Taiwan twice, and we generally welcome all religious leaders to visit, but at the current moment, the timing isn't appropriate for that," he told foreign media in Taipei.

He declined to say when the visit might be welcomed, but political observers said Ma was apparently reluctant to displease China by hosting the Dalai Lama as cross-strait relations have improved.