Taipei - Taiwan's baseball team apologized to Taiwan fans Saturday after humiliating defeats by South Korea and China in the first round of the second World Baseball Classic.

Taiwan lost 9-0 to South Korea on Friday and 4-1 to China on Saturday, missing the chance to advance to the second round of the 16-nation tournament.

The Taiwan team will return home Sunday, becoming the first team to be eliminated from the World Classic.

Taipei - Taiwan's pool champion Wu Chia-ching, unhappy about low pay and no guarantee of a job after retirement, plans to become a Singapore citizen and play for Singapore.

Wu, 20, decided to quit Taiwan after his salary demands were not met by Taiwan sports officials and the Chinese-Taipei Billiard Association stripped him of the right to play for Taiwan.

Taiwan media said Wu's decision to change sides would hurt the moral of Taiwan athletes who were not getting enough help from the state in training and attending overseas competitions.

Taipei - Hon Hai, the world's largest electronics components manufacturer, said friday its 2008 sales rose but income fell amid the global financial crisis.

Sales surged by 19.2 per cent to 1.47 trillion Taiwan dollars (42 billion US dollars), but net income dropped by 29 per cent to 55.1 billion Taiwan dollars (1.6 billion US dollars), compared with 2007.

Taipei - Taiwan upheld its claim to the disputed Spratly Islands Friday, a day after Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi inspected Layang Layang, one of the islets of the South China Sea archipelago.

"Historically, geographically and factually, the Spratly Islands and surrounding waters have long been the traditional territory of the Republic of China without doubt," said Taiwan's Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Taipei - Taiwan's prosecutors on Friday indicted two men they accused of spying for China and sought three-year jail sentence against each of them.

Wang Ren-bing, 55, a senior specialist at the Presidential Office, and Chen Pin-jen, 48, a former parliamentary aide, were charged with leaking national secrets and passing classified information to China.

Taipei - Taiwan's top billiard player Wu Chia-ching could obtain Singapore citizenship to play there after his salary demands were not met in his home country, a sports official confirmed on Thursday.

"We really regret this, but the pay he requested is too high and we cannot meet his demand," Tu Yung-hui, executive director of the Chinese-Taipei Billiard Association, said by phone.

Wu has not received Singapore's citizenship yet, but flew there Singapore Wednesday after talks with Taiwan sports authorities on pay rise collapsed.

Wu's father said Chia-ching is in Singapore for holiday.