The chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) will visit Taiwan next week to give a briefing on the details of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit earlier this week to China, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Lyushun Shen said Thursday.

Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) will hold four trade fairs in China in 2010 to promote Taiwanese name brand products, Huang Wen-rong, deputy secretary of TAITRA, said Thursday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Shen Lyu-shun said Wednesday it is hoped that in the future Taiwan will be able to attend the conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as an observer.

The Department of Health (DOH) is preparing to push to have medical case histories recorded in Chinese on a trial basis, starting next year.

Two domestic financial institutions are on the verge of being taken over by the Central Deposit Insurance Corp. (CDIC) for having insufficient net worth or suffering huge losses, Chairman Chen Shang-cheng of the Central Deposit Insurance Corp. said yesterday

Kuomintang Legislator Wu Yu-sheng, the married lawmaker who was exposed by the Apple Daily for his extramarital affair on Nov. 12., announced yesterday that he and his wife will not divorce and that he has not been in contact with President Ma since the story of his affair broke.

Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) yesterday urged early intervention for deviant sexual behaviors as statistics show that sex offenders who are younger than the age of consent have more than doubled over the past five years, while the number of female minor sexual offenders has also increased.

Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC)'s plan to change vehicle license plates in 2011 and shorten the time of validity yesterday drew complaints from car owners who spent large sums buying plates with lucky numbers, said United Evening News.

With a cold front and a northeast monsoon sweeping across the island, overall temperatures dropped significantly as of yesterday.

Taiwan's southern region faces a drought threat with reservoir levels and surrounding river water flows continuing on the downward trend, said the Water Resources Agency (WRA).