Taipei  - Taiwan police have arrested a funeral parlour worker who stole cash and jewelry from a dead American, a newspaper said Tuesday.

Chen Chien-feng was arrested Monday for stealing 3,700 Taiwan dollars (100 US dollars) and jewelry from the home of Sandy Richard Puckett, a 60-year-old teacher at the Taipei American School, while removing Puckett's body Monday morning, the China Times said.

Taipei  - Taiwan has congratulated Mauricio Funes on his victory in El Salvador's presidential election and vowed to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Central American country, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Tuesday.

CNA said that after Funes, the left-wing candidate, had won the Sunday's election, Taiwan's ambassador to El Salvador Liao Shih-chieh went to Funes' campaign headquarters to deliver the message of congratulation from President Ma Ying-jeou.

Taipei  - Nearly 2,000 Chinese tourists arrived in Taiwan on a cruise ship Monday, the first such arrival by sea in over half a century.

The Keelung Harbour in north Taiwan spread the red carpet and performed a dragon dance to welcome the 1,600 mainland tourists who arrived from Shanghai aboard the Legend of the Seas, owned by the Royal Caribbean International shipping line.

The tourists were all employees of Amway China. Amway plans to send 12,000 Chinese employees to Taiwan in nine groups on the ship.

Taipei  - Taiwan said Sunday that its diplomatic ties with Paraguay and the Dominican Republic are firm, despite calls for the governments of the two countries to recognize China.

Foreign Minister Francisco made the remark to the Central News Agency (CNA), after visiting Paraguay and the Dominican Republic to consolidate ties. The two nations are among the 23 mostly small countries that recognize Taiwan.

Taipei  - Taiwan on Friday welcomed the prospect of a visit to the island by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao after Wen expressed his wish to see Taiwan and meet its people.

"We welcome Chinese leaders at all levels if they want to visit Taiwan, but we need to make careful planning," Premier Liu Chao-shiuan told parliament. "The higher their status is, the more careful the planning must be."

Wen made peace overtures to Taiwan Friday morning at a news conference in Beijing at the end of the annual session of China's nominal parliament, the National People's Congress.

Taipei  - Taiwan is opposed to China's plan to extend China's national railway network to Taipei, calling it unnecessary, according to a newspaper report Friday.

According to the Taipei Times, both the Presidential Office and the Mainland Affairs Council have called China's plan unnecessary from both economic and political perspectives.

"China would have to take professional and political aspects into consideration," presidential office spokesman Wang Yu-chi was quoted by the paper as saying.