Taipei - Rescuers were searching Monday for five missing people whose cars fell into a raging river after a bridge collapsed as Typhoon Sinlaku lashed Taiwan, killing at least five and causing an estimated 6.7 million US dollars in farm losses, officials said Monday.

Three cars plunged into the rising Tachia River in the central county of Taichung when a section of the 2,000-foot-long bridge collapsed Sunday night amid strong winds and torrential rains, officials of the National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission said.

Taipei - Taiwan's stock market shed nearly 4 per cent Monday due to investors' fears that the US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc may declare bankruptcy.

In mid-morning trading, the TAIEX index fell 211.39 points, or 3.35 per cent, to 6,099.29 points.

Taipei - Typhoon Sinlaku slammed into Taiwan Sunday, bringing torrential rains that triggered floods and rockslides in northern and eastern parts of the islands.

The typhoon, with its center winds weakening to 126 kilometers per hour from as much as 184 kilometers per hour the previous day, was still lingering in the sea just 50 kilometers off the northern port city of Keelung, the bureau said.

It has dumped at least 1,000 millimetres of rainfall in the north-east part of the island, and weathermen forecast at least 700 millimetres in the next two days.

Authorities had to evacuate 250 residents in mountainous regions in northern Taiwan because of mud and rockslides.

Taipei - Taiwan shut down schools, businesses and air transport Saturday as Typhoon Sinlaku lashed the entire island with strong winds and torrential rains.

At least four passengers were injured when a south-bound bus rammed a polling station in the southwestern county of Touliu in the evening owing to poor visibility caused by pouring rains, police said.

An unoccupied three-story deserted wooden building in a traditional market in the central city of Taichung collapsed when it was hit by sweeping winds, police said.

Taipei - A Taiwan-based Chinese dissident on Saturday blasted the United States, calling the country "as crooked as China" for rejecting an asylum request made by him and two other Chinese dissidents.

Cai Lujun made the denouncement in an open letter, following the rejection of his asylum request by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taiwan.

Taipei - Taipei kicked off the 2008 Taipei Gay Carnival Friday with a series of activities that are to include Asia's largest gay pride march on September 27.

The Gay Carnival, in its ninth year, started with a composition contest for which Taiwan residents were invited to write essays entitled My Gay Friend, said Chu Hsin-yi, a Taipei city government staff member.

After the online composition contest ends September 28, the Taipei city government would select the best five articles and include them in a booklet on gay life in Taipei, which the city government plans to publish annually.