BID: Sixteen of the nation's diplomatic allies submitted a motion to the UN General Assembly requesting that the Security Council process its membership application
By Ko Shu-ling
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hoped the issue of UN membership for Taiwan would be discussed at the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly which opened on Tuesday in New York.

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By Rich Chang and Flora Wang
Prosecutors probing a murder after a woman's body was found in a garbage bag in Kaohsiung's Yencheng District (鹽埕) on Saturday evening released US citizen David Michael Fillion without bail yesterday morning while his Filipina girlfriend, Armia Panaglima, was ordered detained by Kaohsiung judges on suspicion of murder.

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The Federal Reserve slashed its base federal funds rate by a half point on Tuesday to 4.75 percent, in what analysts called a bold move to stimulate an economy imperiled by housing and credit market stress.

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NECESSARY?: Democrats worry that a new law could open business records, library files and personal mail to searches without prior court orders
The top US intelligence official is citing spying by China and Russia as he tries to persuade Congress not to roll back an anti-terrorism law that enhances the government's ability to intercept foreign calls and e-mail.

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By Rich Chang
The Taiwan High Court ruled yesterday that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) and restaurant proprietor Cheng Ko-jung (鄭可榮) must pay former Department of Health minister Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) NT$1 million (US$30,000) in damages for falsely claiming he had licked a man's ear at a KTV parlor.

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Iraqi and US officials have set up a joint panel in a bid to defuse a crisis over the killing of civilians in a shootout involving US security firm Blackwater, an Iraqi official said yesterday.

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