President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday that a row between Taiwan and the Philippines is not a dispute between the two countries' peoples but between the people of Taiwan and the Philippine government.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) yesterday said it has declined a Philippine request for bilateral judicial assistance for the time being, as the Philippine government still refuses to provide a video of the entire killing incident of a Taiwanese fisherman on May 9.

Average monthly earnings (including regular and irregular earnings) in March were NT$41,652, a 0.63-percent increase compared with 2012, according to a report released today by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

A newspaper group has fired a reporter and seen its editor-in-chief resign in the aftermath of a bogus report of an eatery refusing to serve a Filipino customer.

Culture Minister Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) yesterday said that the lack of Public Television Service Foundation (PTS) board member candidates that is preventing it from operating is the “biggest international scandal that Taiwan has ever had.”

Taiwan's military yesterday sent a mine clearance ship to sea off Northwestern Taiwan to locate the black box of a Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet that crashed into the Taiwan Strait Monday during a regular training mission.

Energized by the strong uptake of smartphones and tablet PCs, Taiwan's number two contract chip-maker UMC has spent US$110 million in Singapore to spearhead the company's R&D and manufacturing for advanced specialty process technologies.

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC, 金管會) yesterday defended its plan to impose margin requirements for day traders, during a Legislative Yuan session.

Former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would be exempted from the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) five-year probation if he wished to rejoin the party, said General Secretary Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) after the Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday.

Shares in Taiwan closed slightly higher Wednesday as investors locked in gains they posted earlier in the session before U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress, dealers said.