Taipei - Hundreds of anti-China protesters clashed with riot police Wednesday evening trying to prevent Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin from leaving a Taipei hotel where he was attending a banquet.

The protest by members and supporters of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) began at about 4:30 pm (9:30 GMT) and continued until after dark around the Regent Hotel on the Chunghsan South Road.

Taipei - Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves dropped slightly to 278.15 billion US dollars at the end of October from the previous month, the island's central bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 2.98-billion-US-dollar, or 3-per-cent, month-on-month decrease was however an increase of 7.84 billion US dollars over the same period last year, the bank said.

Net foreign capital outflows, including net selling in the local stock market by foreign institutional investors to remit funds abroad, were the main factor for the decline, the bank said.

The bank has kept its foreign exchange reserves in the denominations of euros, US dollars, Japanese yen and other major currencies in various major overseas banks.

Taipei - A Taiwan food company will take over the island's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, it was confirmed on Tuesday.

In a letter to the press, the China Times Group said the Want-Want Group has purchased the China Times for a price of 20.4 billion Taiwan dollars (600 million US dollars). The two sides have signed a memorandum of understanding.

"The Want-Want Group will carry on the spirit and values of the China Times Group and will perform social responsibilities," the statement said.

Taipei (Taiwan), Nov. 4 : The heads of the two main negotiating bodies of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan sat down together in Taipei on Tuesday morning for their first ever summit in Taiwan.

Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland''s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and his island counterpart Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, met at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.

Taipei, Nov 4 : China and Taiwan reportedly signed agr

Beijing - China's ruling Communist Party sees the signing of four economic agreements with Taiwan on Tuesday as a small step on the path that it hopes will lead to eventual unification with the island state, a leading scholar said.

"In this situation the main aims are to promote economic, trade and cultural exchanges across the Strait, and to realize and normalize the 'three direct links' of trade, mail, and air and shipping services across the Taiwan Strait," Li Jiaquan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"This trip does not cover political issues," Li said of the three-day visit to Taiwan by Chen Yunlin, the head of China's Association of Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).