Taipei - Taiwan will hold talks with China on financial market investments, including permission for China investment in local stocks and Taiwanese investments in mainland securities and banking institutions, a top official said Sunday.

"They will be included in our upcoming talks as the follow-up agenda," said Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the island's top China policy planning body.

Taipei - A species of rare land crab has been spotted in Taiwan, marking the third time in world history that this type of species has been observed by scientists, a newspaper said on Sunday.

The sesarmid crab, named labuanium trapezoideum, was spotted in the Kenting National Park in south Taiwan, the Taipei Times reported.

The park's biologists said that the species was first spotted on Andaman Island, Indonesia, in 1837 and biologists did not find another such crab until 166 years later.

In 2003, a group of biologists found several labuanium trapezoideum crabs in Taitung County, southeast Taiwan, and made detailed records of their biological and behavioral characteristics, which was later published in the science journal Crustaceana.

Taipei - A Taiwan woman is so good at matchmaking that in the past 30 years, she had helped 573 couples tie the knot, a newspaper said on Sunday.

Lee Hsiu-yen, 57, in Pingtung City, south Taiwan, is a full-time fruit seller and part-time matchmaker. In the past 30 years, she has helped 573 couples tie the knot, averaging 19 couples each year, the United Daily News said.

Out of these 573 couples, only five pairs have divorced.

While most of marriage seekers come from Taiwan, she has offered service overseas-based Taiwanese.

London, Oct. 11 : India, South Korea and Taiwan should join the global trend and immediately establish a moratorium on the death penalty, the rights group Amnesty International has said.

In an appeal to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty, Amnesty said these three nations had stopped executing criminals in recent years and should make that move official, setting an example for the rest of Asia.

Taipei- Taiwan on Saturday reiterated its wish to become a dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Vice President Vincent Siew made the statement while attending an internatinoal seminar on how to help Taiwan participate in ASEAN activities.

Taipei- Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom ended his visit to Taiwan Saturday with the two countries pledging to strengthen diplomatic ties and Taiwan offering more aid to Guatemala.

At the end of his five-day visit, Colom on Saturday held talks with President Ma Ying-jeou and signed a joint communique in which the two leaders pledged to strengthen the seven decades of friendly ties and boost cooperation in all fields.

The statement recounted the cooperation projects agreed upon by both sides, but did not mention the cost of the cooperation projects or amount of new aid.