Taipei - Taiwan's EVA Air will resume the Taipei-Paris service in 2009 after suspending the service in 2007 due to rising fuel prices, EVA Air said Friday.

Starting January 1, EVA will use a Boeing 777-300ER to provide thrice-weekly Taipei-Paris flight, with the flight taking off from Taipei Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and returning to Taipei Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

EVA said that the Boeing 777-300ER uses 20 per cent less fuel than the Boeing 747-400 which was previously used to fly the Taipei-Paris route, thus cutting costs of operation.

Taipei - Fourteen foreign and local baseball players were questioned by prosecutors in Taiwan Thursday as new evidence emerged in an investigation into alleged match-fixing by the T-Rex team.

The 14 include five foreign players. Three of them - including former US Major League baseball player Cory Bailey - have been suspended from playing indefinitely after they were questioned on October 8 and released on bail.

Taipei - Taiwan prosecutors on Thursday requested a 14-month prison term for a city councilman after charging him with inciting a mob to attack a visiting Chinese official last week.

The indictment clouded next week's visit by China's top negotiator with Taiwan, Chen Yunlin, as pro-independence groups saw the charges as the government appeasing China and vowed to confront Chen wherever he goes.

Taipei - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is negotiating to buy Taiwan's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, a newspaper said Thursday.

Three parties are seeking to buy the loss-making China Times Group, but Lai's Next Media Group was seen as the likely winner because it is willing to accept a package sale while the other two bidders only want to buy the China Times Group's two profit-making television stations, the Economic Daily News said.

The takeover talks were near completion and Next Media was expected to announce the takeover in early November, the News quoted unnamed industry sources as saying.

Both Next Media and the China Times Group refused to comment on the news report.

Taipei - Taiwan stocks surged more than 6 per cent Thursday after the central bank cut interest rates and on positive signs in Taiwan-China ties.

The benchmark TAIEX rose 277.12 points, or 6.29 per cent, to close at 4,683.64 after the central bank cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent, and due to positive signs in Taiwan-China ties.

Taipei - Taiwan prosecutors on Thursday requested a 14-month prison term for a city councilman after charging him with inciting a mob to attack a visiting Chinese official last week.

"Through radio broadcasting, the defendant Wang Ting-yu publicly incited the public to rally at the venue where Zhang Mingqing visited and led the mob in applying violence by pushing Zhang, resulting in Zhang being shoved to the ground and injured," prosecutor Lee Ching-wen said.

"For this, we are seeking a sentence of one year and two months in prison against the defendant," she said.