Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Foreign Minister Francisco H.L. Ou left for El Salvador Tuesday to cement bilateral relations following the March 15 election of a new president in the Central American ally, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). “The trip is to congratulate newly elected President Mauricio Funes, as well [...]

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday that it will invite a Russian rescue team, which participated in the disaster relief work after the Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake in Taiwan, to attend a series of events in Taiwan to mark the 10th anniversary of the disaster. “The Foreign Ministry has [...]

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan finally ratified two United Nations human rights treaties Tuesday that had been shelved since the Republic of China lost its U.N. membership in 1971. The treaties are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that were introduced [...]

The Government Information Office (GIO) on Monday gave its Paris-based official Pan Shun-yun (潘舜昀) a reprimand for a newspaper opinion piece that defended the reputation of disgraced former colleague Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英). Kuo, the former acting director of the information division at Taiwan’s representative office in Toronto, was relieved of civil servant status last week [...]

The Kuomintang (KMT) downplayed Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei’s (周錫瑋) low approval rating on Monday, saying the situation was not as bad as the media had portrayed. KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) dismissed media reports that Chou lacked popular support, emphasizing that the public “could feel the efforts Chou had made recently.” Wu said that [...]

The Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) new plan to clean up Taipei came under fire from environmentalists from the Green Party on Monday, who labeled it a “waste of resources.” The comments came after the EPA and the Taipei City Government handed out 59 GPS devices to the city’s “cleanliness and beautification assistants” to help them [...]

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Despite the sluggish economy, the Kaohsiung-based Animal Rescue Team Taiwan has raised NT$312,400 (US$9,200) in consumption vouchers since launching a voucher donation drive at the end of January, a volunteer said Tuesday. The donation campaign reached its peak in the first two weeks after the government first distributed the vouchers on [...]

Taipei, March 27 (CNA) Beginning with just three classes in one kindergarten and two nurseries, Taiwan’s southernmost county of Pingtung was the first and still is the only county in which preschool teachers conduct classes exclusively in the Hakka dialect. The Hsueh Cheng Kindergarten, the Hsiang Tan Nursery School and the Hsiao Po Shih Nursery [...]

Taipei, March 30 (CNA) An exhibition featuring heavyweight collections of 20th century contemporary art from the renowned Pompidou Center in France will kick off next month in Taipei, organizers said Monday. Speaking at a press conference, Hsieh Hsiao-yun, director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) which is co-organizing the event with the Paris-based center, [...]

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Taiwan’s trade surplus with China in January hit the lowest single-month level in eight years as exports to China continued to be throttled by declining demand, according to a report released Monday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Total trade with China amounted to US$4.1 billion in January, down 56.8 percent [...]