The U.S. dollar rose against the New Taiwan dollar Thursday, gaining NT$0.022 to close at the day's high of NT$30.050 as the greenback recovered from its early losses with the help of the local central bank, dealers said.

The Public Health Bureau of New Taipei City yesterday seized up to 14,480 liters of soy sauce products allegedly containing an excessive amount of heterocyclic organic chemicals from an underground factory located in the Wugu District of the city, according to bureau officials.

A magnitude-4.3 earthquake jolted southern Taiwan at 7:46 a.m. Thursday, according to the Central Weather Bureau.

In response to a recent remark by Director of Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) that compared Taiwan's independence ideology to junk stock, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) returned the volley yesterday saying Zhang lacked the demeanor of a leader from a major country, according to Hung Tsai-lung (洪財隆), head of the DPP's China Affairs Committee.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday that if Taipei prosecutors declare the Twin Towers' bidding process “flawed” in any way, then the city government would not rule out nullifying the bid.

A criminal suspect wanted by the Taipei District Court was recently escorted back to Taiwan by two U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agents and then sent to the court by the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB,刑事警察局) for prosecution, according to a press release issued yesterday by the CIB.

In light of controversies with the Twin Towers and MeHas City (美河市) projects, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday promised that he would make public all classified documents pertaining to the city's 52 Mass Rapid Transportation (MRT) joint developments within a month.

Former finance minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) is feeling vindicated.

The government enacted the second stage of retaliatory measures toward the Philippine government to show dissatisfaction with their responses to Taiwan's demands over the Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) fisherman shooting incident, yesterday.

The Philippine president on Wednesday apologized to Taiwan for the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by Philippine coast guard personnel, after Taiwan rejected an earlier Philippine apology and started retaliating diplomatically.