Fubon Life yesterday purchased a commercial property in the prime area of Taipei City for NT$1.939 billion, translating into NT$14.53 million per ping of land, a record-breaking price. A ping is 3.3 square meters.

Taiwan was ranked 7th in the 2012 global competitiveness rankings by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management and Development (IMD), falling one notch from 2011 due mainly to the country's lackluster economic performance, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012 released yesterday by the Lausanne-based business school.

Executive Yuan Spokesman Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉) said at 6 p.m. yesterday that Premier Sean Chen had accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如).

Social activists lashed out Wednesday at a proposal by ruling Kuomintang (KMT) legislators to adopt a dual-track system for taxing stock gains, saying the plan demonstrated the government's insincerity in promoting tax fairness.

The U.S. government was not threatening to refuse reopening bilateral trade talks if Taiwan did not lift a ban on the import of U.S. beef containing the banned leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine, a local official said yesterday.

Republic of China nationals who hold an R.O.C. passport but lack household registration in Taiwan will not be granted visa-free entry into the United States if Washington includes Taiwan in its Visa Waiver Program (VWP), the United Evening News (UEN) reported yesterday.

Ruling Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Wang Yu-min on Wednesday called for the establishment of a government agency dedicated to safeguarding the rights of children and teenagers, in light of a recent spate of family tragedies.

Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday demanded a seven-year prison sentence for Yeh Kuan-heng (葉冠亨), whose drunk driving cost a total of three lives in late April. The incident led to public outrage and calls for stricter punishments for drunk drivers.

The intoxicated son of a local fashion designer was arrested in Taipei yesterday after allegedly insulting police officers in public.

A female official surnamed Chou from the Hua-Lien Hospital, Department of Health, occupied the train seat of a passenger with cancer and refused to give it up, sparking the anger of Internet users after a recording of her actions was uploaded onto the web.