Police yesterday arrested four suspects illegally chopping and transporting Stout Camphor trees in eastern Taiwan, local media reported.

Authorities yesterday officially handed over 50 newly built houses for Taitung County families affected by Typhoon Morakot, which devastated parts of Taiwan in August.

Taitung County District Court sentenced a 19-year-old scooter driver who caused an accident to three months in jail and fined his parents NT$3.37 million for joint liability, local media reported yesterday.

They come from different countries and have different creative bents, but they all share a common interest for carving driftwood into marvels that will bring good fortune to Taiwan.

Hogs on farms in Taitung County have been cleared of influenza H1N1, prompting a lifting of the ban on local hog farms and on the sale of pigs to wholesale markets, the government agency in charge of the issue said yesterday.

The pigs on a farm in Taitung, eastern Taiwan that were diagnosed with the influenza A (H1N1) virus late last month are recovering without showing new traces of the virus, a Council of Agriculture (COA) official said Monday.

A Taitung County magistrate will likely become the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT) candidate for the by-election to select a legislator to represent the county, after a KMT poll yesterday showed that support for the magistrate is over the nomination threshold.

The area adjacent to Jiaming Lake in eastern Taiwan has once again emerged as a paradise for wild animals three months after Typhoon Morakot damaged hiking trails to the scenic mountain lake, forest rangers said Wednesday.

It may take at least a century for the coral reefs in waters surrounding the outlying island of Lanyu, also known as Orchid Island, to recover from the damage wrought by Typhoon Morakot, a researcher said Monday.

Controversial county magistrate yesterday registered to run in the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) primary for by-election of a legislative seat representing Taitung County, rousing opposing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) threatening to take legal action against KMT.