President Ma ying-jeou yesterday presided over a ground-breaking ceremony to kick off construction of a 40-kilometer elevated freeway at a total cost of NT$88.257 billion.

Buyers from Asia purchased all but one of the top 10 priciest items at the sale of the last belongings of late couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, Christie's said Friday.

German prosecutors investigating corruption in football say 15 people in Germany and two in Switzerland have been arrested and that about 200 games in Europe ─ including Champions League ties ─ are involved in what an UEFA official called the biggest match-fixing scandal in Europe.

A gas explosion tore through a state-run coal mine in northern China on Saturday, killing 42 people and leaving 66 others trapped underground as rescuers worked hastily to save them.

New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming said yesterday he prefers to stay in the Yankees next season unless he is forced to make another choice.

Oprah Winfrey was set to announce Friday that her powerhouse daytime television show, the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire with legions of fans, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air.

Bill Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said Chinese growth is likely to be hurt by an absence of consumer demand from trading partners such as the U.S.

EU leaders picked Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the European Union's first president, the EU presidency announced Thursday, after Britain dropped its backing for Tony Blair.

The chairwoman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) expressed optimism Thursday about the party's chances in the upcoming Dec. 5 three-in-one local elections, saying that the DPP is expected to retain its grip on the counties of Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung.

A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle killed 13 people, including a police officer, and wounded 30 others Friday in a busy city square in western Afghanistan.

A suspected U.S. missile strike killed at least eight militants Friday in northwestern Pakistan, officials said, the second attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region.

The National Police Agency (NPA) kicked off early this morning a large-scale drug crackdown campaign in line with the official implementation of a set of amendments to the Narcotics Endangerment Prevention Act, which will start to impose criminal punishment on those who take or hold less than 20 grams of Ketamine.

A Canadian man was arrested yesterday for drug-trafficking and growing marijuana in his residence in Taichung.

President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) won't be put into practice if the contents of the pact fails to clear the legislative floor.