A plane landing in stormy weather has crashed outside an airport on a small Taiwanese island, with 47 people feared dead.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou won a close re-election fight today, leveraging his message of greater prosperity through expanded ties with China to beat his populist-minded opponent.

Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou expressed his frustration today after an unusually public test firing of 19 surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles became a national embarrassment.

China and Taiwan signed a tariff-slashing trade pact today that boosts economic ties and further eases political tensions six decades after the rivals split amid civil war.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters chanted anti-communist slogans as they marched in Taiwan's capital today to protest against a planned trade agreement with rival China.

Taiwan risked China’s anger with a surprise invitation to let the Dalai Lama visit survivors of a devastating typhoon today.

A mudslide touched off by a deadly typhoon buried a remote mountain village in Taiwan, leaving at least 400 people unaccounted for, while a massive landslide in China toppled seven apartment buildings, an official said today.

An American destroyer is following a North Korean ship suspected of transporting weapons toward Burma, as anticipation mounted today that the North could soon test-fire short- or medium-range missiles off its eastern coast.

TAIWAN and China yesterday signed a range of deals aimed at bringing the two sides closer economically, after almost 60 years of hostilities that often took them to the brink of war.

Envoys from Taiwan and China began meeting today to discuss a historic trade agreement that many hope will further ease the threat of a conflict in one of Asia’s most dangerous potential flash points.

China has invited Taiwan to talks on tourism and direct charter flights, in another sign of warming relations following a top-level meeting between the two sides.

Taiwan’s opposition candidate cruised to victory in the presidential election today, promising to expand economic ties with China while protecting the island from being swallowed up politically by its giant communist neighbour.

Taiwan’s main opposition Nationalist party reportedly captured at least 57 seats in the island’s parliament today, assuring it of a majority in the 113-seat body.

Patriot missiles streaked across the light-blue Asian sky and F-16s bombarded ships yesterday as Taiwan beat back a simulated Chinese invasion in the island’s largest-ever military exercise.

Taiwan’s president is expected to suspend the work of a government committee to reunify with rival China today, instead of scrapping the body altogether, in an apparent attempt to avoid American anger, a report says.

Authorities in south-eastern China put 800,000 people in temporary shelters as Typhoon Haitang churned toward the coast today with fierce rains and high winds after hammering northern Taiwan and leaving three people dead.

The second Taiwanese delegation to visit China within a month met today with President Hu Jintao amid a campaign by Beijing to isolate Taiwan’s president and his supporters, who want formal independence.

The historic meeting between China’s President Hu Jintao and Taiwan’s opposition leader Lien Chan dominated the front pages of regional newspapers today, with most publications praising the move as a step toward peaceful reconciliation between the two sides.

TAIWAN opposition leader Lien Chan and Chinese President Hu Jintao closed the book on decades of hostility yesterday with a simple handshake in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

Taiwan’s opposition leader and Chinese President Hu Jintao promised today to work together to end hostilities between Taipei and Beijing, during the highest-level meeting between the two sides since they split amid civil war nearly six decades ago.

China’s parliament today authorised the military to go to war to stop any Taiwanese independence move – a step that caused alarm across Asia.

Chinese planes touched down in Taiwan today, completing the first non-stop flights between the rivals since a bloody civil war split the two sides 56 years ago.

Rescuers scrambled today to reach scores of people left stranded by a powerful typhoon that sliced through the Philippines on the heels of a rainstorm that killed more than 420 people with possibly hundreds more missing.

China today adamantly rejected Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian’s call for peace talks between the island and the mainland, characterising his overture instead as a bid for independence that could lead to disaster.

Typhoon Aere battered northern Taiwan today, triggering a mudslide that buried a family of four as the storm’s eye churned toward China, forcing nearly 250,000 people to flee coastal areas and killing at least 12 people.

Typhoon Aere whipped northern Taiwan with gusty winds and heavy rain today, while China began evacuating 249,000 people from coastal areas as it braced for the storm that has killed at least seven people.

CHINA has been practicing an attack on Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun said.

Taiwanese linked hands to form a human chain the length of the island today, as President Chen Shui-bian urged the protesters to oppose China’s military threats and create the “Great Wall of Taiwan’s democracy”.

Aviation experts from France have joined the search for a Taiwanese airline’s French-made cargo plane that crashed over the weekend in the Taiwan Strait during a flight to Macau.

An American law firm is suing planemaker Boeing, accusing the company of failing to tell a Taiwanese airline that cracks in one of its planes were improperly repaired before the jumbo jet crashed.

TAIWAN has scrapped planned war games as part of efforts to defuse tensions with China, but Beijing has told President Chen Shui-bian he may risk attack if he presses ahead with a referendum on independence.

A Taiwanese security official has said that there was no evidence that a terrorist or a missile caused a China Airlines jet to break up over the Taiwan Strait.

A Hong Kong-bound China Airlines jet broke up into four parts in the sky before crashing into the Taiwan Strait with 225 people on board, the chief Taiwanese crash investigator said today.

A China Airlines flight to Hong Kong crashed today in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan prime minister Yu Shyi-kun said.

Thousands of people have worshipped a finger believed to belong to the Buddha at a stadium in Taiwan.

Fireworks lit up the night sky as Beijing erupted in celebration - some orchestrated, some spontaneous - at being selected to host the 2008 Olympics.