Taipei - A senior Chinese official cut short his Taiwan visit and returned to China Wednesday, after he was shoved to the ground by pro-independence activists during a visit to a temple the previous day.

"I feel bad that police have to deploy so much manpower to protect my safety and I don't think I should cause them so much trouble, but the public will tell right from wrong," said Zhang Mingqing, vice chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), at the airport.

Taipei - Taiwan Defence Minister Chen Chao-min on Wednesday ordered all warplanes grounded for three days for safety inspections after a second crash in as many days.

"With painful mind, I apologise to all compatriots in Taiwan, and the ministry has ordered that all war planes, except for those on routine surveillance or search missions, be grounded for three days for safety inspections," Chen told parliament.

His comments came after opposition parliamentarians questioned him over the crash of a submarine-hunting helicopter during night training Tuesday, a day after a self-developed Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDF) jet crashed.

Taipei - A senior Chinese official was assaulted Tuesday by a group of pro-independence activists during a visit in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan, threatening to undermine high-level China-Taiwan talks planned for this month in Taipei.

Zhang Mingqing, vice chairman of the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), was mobbed by a group of activists led by city councilor Wang Ting-yu of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party during a sightseeing trip in Tainan.

ARATS is a state-funded mainland agency charged with dealing with the island in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

Taipei - Taiwan's Fubon Financial Holding, the island's second-largest financial group, Monday said it would buy the Taiwanese life insurance unit of Dutch banking giant ING Life Insurance.

"The acquisition will cost 600 million US dollars and we all believe it is a great deal for both Fubon Financial and ING in terms of business strategy and financial decision," Fubon president Victor Kung said.

Taipei - An Indigenous Defence Fighter jet of Taiwan's air force went missing Monday during routine training over the island of Penghu, a spokesman said.

"We lost contact with the fighter jet shortly after it flew from Chingchuankang air base (central city of Taichung) at 9 am (0100 GMT) to Penghu," said air force training director Chang Chao-hui.

He said two officers, identified as 29-year-old Captain Kuo Chih-pin and 31-year-old Captain Chen Chien-ting, were on board the plane when it went missing over the sea.

Chang said the military has already sent six vessels and two helicopters to search for the plane, developed by Taiwan in the 1990s with US technology.

Taipei - Taiwan Saturday barred the import of Chinese-made ammonium bicarbonate, an ingredient used for baking, in yet another ban related to China's toxic chemical-tainted food scandal, a senior health official said.

"We have found concentrations of 70 to 300 parts per million of melamine in the Chinese-made ammonium bicarbonate, which is a rising agent used as baking soda," said Cheng Shou-hsia, deputy director-general of the Department of Health.

"For this, we have barred the import of ammonium bicarbonate from China and the use of such ingredient in any of our food products effective today," he said.