Recently, NBG 419N wireless N home router 300 Mbps was introduced by ZyXEL Communications, a broadband access solutions provider.

Compliant with 802.11n technology, ZyXEL NBG 419N wireless router is six times faster than the standard 802.11g networks.

The NBG 419N is also supported by a Wi-Fi protected set-up (WPS) and a push button, apart from being eco-friendly.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) conducted a study, which found Soft plastic toys available in the country which are made in China or Taiwan contained harmful chemicals that can cause reproductive disorders, lung problems and asthma in children.

The study found a chemical called phthalates in the manufactured toys. Phthalates is used for making the plastic soft and is already banned in the US and European Union.

On Thursday, Taiwan's top ranked university opened Asia's first ever animal cancer research center, which is aimed at serving the island's pet owners.

Established at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, the facility also aims to research into the cancers that affect animals, particularly cats and dogs, and will also contribute to cancer research and therapy for humans.

"Studies have indicated that dogs and human beings share common places in some genes", Professor Liu Chen-shuan said.

Over the years, cancer has come out as the main killer of Taiwan's "companion animals", whose average life span has also managed to increase to 11 years from 7, over the past 8 decades.

Taipei, Jan 9 : A fugitive on the run for 15 years was arrested after nostalgia for stewed pork rice caused him to return to Taiwan, a news report said Saturday.

Chang Wen-tzung, 56, escaped to China after he was charged with illegally consuming the controlled substance codeine, the Central News Agency said.

Chang insisted that police found codeine in his urine because he had taken cough syrup which contained codeine, but he was still sentenced to three years and 50 days in prison.

Chang avoided jail by fleeing to Guangzhou on the mainland, where he had been living ever since, the report said.

A Taiwanese opera is in town. The musical called ‘One Step, One Mind’ is a two-and-a-half-hour play that will be enacted by 20 performers of Trinity Culture Center, led by internationally feted director Yang Ching-liang from Taiwan.

The play tells the story of Master Xuanzang, or Hieun Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and translator who came from China to India in the early 7th century.

Taichung (Taiwan), Dec 22 - Taiwan and China Tuesday held a high-level dialogue on expanding trade ties as hundreds of pro-unification and pro-independence activists clashed outside.

The clashes erupted as pro-independence activists set a Chinese flag on fire and pro-unification activists tried to put it out.

The unrest occurred outside the hotel in Taichung in central Taiwan where Chinese negotiator Chen Yunlin and Taiwan negotiator Chiang Ping-kun were meeting.

Taipei, Dec 21- Bolivia's Bruno Kettels was crowned Mister International 2009 at a ceremony held in Taichung city in Taiwan.

The 20-year-old Kettels, who studies chemical engineering, beat out Spaniard Hector Soria for the title in the competition final Saturday night. Also in the running in the final were contestants from Lebanon, France and Poland.

Another Latino winning a trophy in this year's competition was Venezuela's Luis Nuzzo, who received the Mister Congeniality award, while the Taiwanese contestant, Terry Shih, took the prize for best traditional outfit.

Taipei, Dec 13 - Taiwan will open a research institute on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to seek closer ties with the regional group, a newspaper reported Sunday.

An unnamed source told The Economic Daily News that at the end of 2008 President Ma Ying-jeou instructed the foreign ministry to monitor the trend of Southeast Asia's regional integration.

The foreign ministry commissioned the Chung-Hwa Institute for Economic Research to establish a research institute on ASEAN affairs, the source said.

Taipei, Dec 12 : Taiwan launched an island-wide H1N1 vaccination campaign Saturday, offering cabbages and other small gifts to induce people to take the shot.

More than half a million people took the vaccination shot Saturday at 2,573 places designated by the Department of Health.

They include hospitals, clinics, community centres, shopping malls, train stations and temples.

Some Taiwanese are reluctant to take the shot, fearing the vaccine is not safe.

To lure people to take the shot, the shopping malls and community centres gave the recipient a big green cabbage or a small gift, like a ruler or a rubber eraser.

Taipei, Dec 4 : Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is confident that he can return to Tibet in this lifetime, and believes he will be reborn many times after his death, according to a book published Friday.

In "The Oldest Laughter in the Himalaya", written by Taiwan film producer Liao Wen-yu, the Dalai Lama said that when the situation in China has changed and its leaders become more open- minded, he will be able to return to Tibet, the homeland that he had to flee in 1959.

Liao wrote the book while shooting a documentary on the Dalai Lama to record his exile and his fight for the freedom of Tibetans.

Taipei, Nov 28 - A Taiwan man was turned over for prosecution Saturday after hiring two men to chop off his hand in order to claim insurance worth 24 million Taiwan dollars ($730,000).

Chiang Chi-wei, 38, told police Nov 8 that he had been attacked by two men who chopped off his left hand in Chunghe, a satellite city of Taipei.

Police became suspicious because the wound on Chiang's arm was smooth and blood stains were concentrated in one area on the ground.

Taipei  - A US envoy on Monday assured Taipei that the US position on Taiwan remains unchanged despite President Barack Obama's visit to China.

Raymond F Burghardt, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the highest-ranking US official handling Taiwan ties, gave the assurance to Parliament Speaker Wang Jin-pyng.

Burghardt arrived in Taipei Sunday to brief authorities on Obama's talks last week with Chinese President Hu Jintao, as many Taiwanese are worried that Obama did not speak up for Taiwan on his China trip.

Taipei  - Taiwan's visitor figures rose 11.65 per cent in the first 10 months this year, boosted by the influx of Chinese tourists, the Tourism Bureau said Monday.

Between January and October, Taiwan received 3.5 million visitors, the Tourism Bureau said in its monthly bulletin.

Of these, 1.8 million visitors - or nearly two-thirds of the total - were tourists, up 27.69 per cent year-on-year.

The rest were business visitors, foreign workers or students.

Taipei  - A Taiwan man who had staggered drunkenly into the road was killed by a car after 81 vehicles passed by without stopping to help him off the road, the Apple Daily reported Sunday.

Lien Hong-hsin, 51, a retired man, got drunk while playing mahjong at a friend's home in Taipei Saturday evening, the newspaper reported.

He took a taxi home but, as he was drunk, he did not enter his home but staggered in confusion to the middle of the road to hail a taxi "to go home."

Taipei - A majority of Taiwan residents have more trust in US President Barack Obama than in their own president or Chinese President Hu Jintao, an opinion poll showed on Friday.

The telephone survey of 1,004 adults by the Global View monthly magazine found that only 38.6 per cent trust President Ma Ying-jeou, who lags well behind Obama's 46.1-per-cent trust rate.

While 35.4 per cent trust Tsai Ying-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan's pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party, only 17.5 per cent trust Hu.

Taipei  - Twenty-three per cent of Taiwan's city children have considered suicide due to school pressure and family problems, a survey showed.

The Child Welfare League Foundation surveyed 1,547 primary school pupils across Taiwan to find out the difference between life in cities and the countryside.

The pupils surveyed were from the third and sixth grades, aged 10-13.

It found that while pupils in rural areas have fewer material goods than their city peers, they are better off mentally.

Taipei - Taiwan Thursday revised an immigration regulation to extend the length of stay for foreign shipping crews to 30 days from one week.

"The revision, made in line of current international trend, is to allow foreign crew members to have a longer stay to facilitate their vessel maintenance, supply and cargo loading and unloading work," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Taipei  - The United States is planning to send an envoy to Taiwan to brief authorities on US President Barack Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Raymond F Burghardt, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), is to arrive in Taipei Sunday for a four-day visit, AIT's Taipei office said in a statement.

Taipei  - Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian, serving a life term for corruption, plans to release a CD to call for Taiwan's independence from China, his office said Wednesday.

"The single-song CD is entitled One Country on Each Side (of the Taiwan Strait). We are raising money so that we can release it in December," a staff member from Chen's office, who gave only her surname Chen, said.

"Chen Shui-bian wrote the lyrics. Composer Wang Ming-cheh wrote the music for the song," she added.

Taipei  - A Japanese company will help Taiwan build the island's first undersea earthquake monitoring station, the Central News Agency (CNA) said on Sunday.

NEC Corp of Japan won the contract to build the station off Taiwan's northeast coast, which can cut the time of reporting an earthquake by 10 seconds, CNA quoted Shin Tzay-chyn, director of the Central Weather Bureau, as saying.