AT LAST: Lawmakers finally approved a bill to manage the nation's new pension scheme, meaning that money that stood idle for almost two years can now earn a better return
By Shih Hsiu-chuan
The legislature yesterday passed a long-stalled bill designed to set up a commission to manage labor pension funds that have sat idle since a new labor pension scheme was adopted two years ago.

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Tornadoes swept across the southern US and killed at least 20 people in three states, ripping up a hospital and high school where students huddled for shelter, authorities said yesterday.

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INCOMPETENCE?: 'Half-baked' plans concerning education system reform have seen the ministry come in for criticism from all sections of society
By Max Hirsch
Just four days after its unveiling, the Cabinet's 12-year compulsory education plan snowballed into a public relations nightmare yesterday, as a communication breakdown between education ministry and school officials and an on-camera outburst by Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) threatened to derail one of the most far-reaching education proposals in the nation's recent history.

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`A NEW ERA': After the premier announced that the perimeter wall would be demolished, news leaked that the Cabinet had decided upon the hall's new name
By Max Hirsch
A closed-door Cabinet meeting presided over by Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) yesterday ended with an agreement to rename the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall the "Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall," Cabinet spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) told the Taipei Times.

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The US said on Thursday that top anti-terror allies Afghanistan, Pakistan and Colombia had fallen short in the war on drugs despite enhanced counter-narcotics efforts, and it criticized perennial foes Iran, North Korea and Venezuela for not cooperating.

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Pakistani security forces have arrested the Taliban's former defense minister, the most senior figure from the Islamist regime to be captured since it fell in 2001, security officials said yesterday.

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China demanded yesterday the US scrap a planned sale of hundreds of missiles to Taiwan, warning the deal would harm regional stability and bilateral ties.

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