GINA Kerry rates the phone calls from strangers in Ghana purporting to have seen her missing aunt and asking for money to be wired through Western Union among the crueller hoaxes she’s endured in the 20-year search for her loved one.

A typhoon has flooded homes, roads and farmland in Taiwan, bringing more than 20 inches of rain.

APPLE manufacturer Foxconn has reportedly urged its workers in southern China to promise in writing not to kill themselves as it battles to stem a spate of factory suicides.

A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Taiwan today, causing widespread damage and disrupting communications around the island.

The Social Development minister tonight said she would not be bullied by Northern Executive colleagues over funding for loyalists in the North.

Nearly 600,000 people were evacuated as Typhoon Talim ploughed into southern China today, packing winds of up to 114mph.

Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian was shot in the stomach today while campaigning on last day of the presidential election, a lawmaker travelling with the President said.