An Ecuadorian student studying in Taiwan was killed in a road accident following a Christmas party, a newspaper said yesterday.

The recent pants-dropping episode by the famed writer Chiu Pa-tao(九把刀) during a lecture at the National Tainan Girls' Senior High School caused quite a media stir.

Tainan County Magistrate Su Huan-jhih, who is the focus of an investigation regarding corruption in the Tainan Science Park land acquisition case, filed a complaint against the Tainan District Prosecutor's Office yesterday and also petitioned the legal system to dispose of the “bad apples” among prosecutors who abused public trust and neglected their duties.

Prosecutors in Tainan yesterday dismissed allegations that a raid on the southern county magistrate's office and residence in a corruption probe were political motivated.

Residents of Tainan County's Yancheng Village and environmentalists yesterday accused the Legislative Yuan of not keeping its promise to remove a weather radar station that was installed in the village in 2001, as it is believed that its electromagnetic radiation has given villagers cancer and mental illness.

A full-size replica of a 17th century Ming Dynasty armed merchant vessel set off on its maiden voyage from Anping Harbor in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan yesterday to re-enact the scene of the arrival of a Chinese general over 300 years ago.

A replica of an armed merchant vessel of the Ming Dynasty will make its maiden voyage in December to re-enact a historic scene, the Tainan city government announced at a press conference yesterday.

The gloves are off in the Tainan mayoral election scene after supporters of the two contenders clashed yesterday.

Thanks to the government's policy of reviving fallow land, the output of young soybeans — immature soybeans known as “maodou” in Chinese — in Sinshih Township, southern Taiwan's Tainan County has nearly doubled this year from the previous year.

A woman claimed the ghost of a Taiwanese folk hero's trusted aide came to her to demand that his tomb be repaired, local media reported.