The Fair Trade Commission's decision to fine nine independent power producers (IPPs) a total of NT$62.3 billion is an opportunity to renew Taiwan's resolve to phase out nuclear power, especially amid the ongoing national debate over the activation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

Sunglasses, or shades, are wonderful things. Aside from the chic and fashionable look that they quite often give their wearers, they protect the eyes when the sun beats down mercilessly on the multitudes, hence the name given to a certain brand of sunglasses when sports cars called Sunbeams roamed the streets.

Former President Lee Teng-hui said recently that in order for Taiwan to become a full-fledged democracy, the island must sort out its identity crisis once and for all.

You don't often hear good news from the United Nations. But according to the recently released 2013 Human Development Report, we are making huge progress toward ending global poverty.

China has capped a once-in-a-decade transition of power that saw the rise of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. Media reports have commented on the enormous challenges awaiting the new politburo under Xi and Li. Among the most critical issues to be addressed, corruption is frequently mentioned, and so is income inequality and environmental degradation.

President Ma Ying-jeou announced last week the government's new plan to develop a gross national happiness index aimed at determining whether there has been an improvement in the country's well-being by using quantifiable data.

President Ma Ying-jeou left Taipei for the Vatican yesterday. Accompanied by the first lady and a four-member delegation, Ma will attend the inaugural Mass of Pope Fancis tomorrow and leave Rome for home on the same day. It is his first official trip to the Holy See, the only diplomatic ally in Europe of the Republic of China.

The Taiwan national baseball team's better-than-expected performances in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) have won tens of thousands of Taiwanese fans over the past weeks when the nation literally stopped to closely follow every game during the tournament.

Thousands of Malaysian women took to the streets Sunday for the 1Million Women Purple Walk in conjunction with International Women's Day.

Despite his avowed commitment to abide by the outcome of a referendum in deciding whether or not to scrap the country's Fourth Nuclear Power Plant now being built in Gongliao, New Taipei City, Premier Jiang Yi-huah, caught between a rock and a hard place, may be trying to prejudice the outcome of the vote sponsored by the ruling Kuomintang.