Taipei- Taiwan's military said Thursday it is testing a smart bomb that could destroy the runways of air bases along the south-east coast of China.

The military stressed it has no immediate plan to put the weapon, a Taiwanese version of the AGM-154 US Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), into mass production.

"The Wan Chien cluster bomb is in the testing and inspection phase and far from being in mass production. Actually, we have yet to make any decision on whether to mass produce it or not," said Major General Lisa Chi, spokeswoman for the defence ministry.

Taipei  - Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission approved Polaris Securities Company's application to set up a branch in Singapore, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Wu Tang-chieh, director-general of the Securities and Futures Bureau, said the commission cleared Polaris to open a branch in Singapore, allowing the company to expand its business abroad, the Taipei Times said.

Polaris is the first Taiwan securities firm to get approval to establish a branch in the city state, in keeping with Taiwan's liberalization and globalization policy, Wu told a press briefing.

Taipei - Taiwan's most exclusive restaurant on Wednesday gave in to protests from US and Taiwanese conservation groups and agreed to remove serving shark's fin from its banquet menus.

Taipei- Taiwan's top negotiator with China suggested Monday that Taiwan and China should sign an economic cooperation pact and a peace pact to promote peace in the Taiwan Strait.

Chiang Ping-kun, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), made the proposal while reporting Taiwan-China ties at the monthly meeting of the Presidential Office.

Taiwan-China ties have moved from the 1949-1987 period of confrontation to the 1988-2008 period of economic exchanges, the report said.

Taipei -

Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on