Taiwan

Lee sits on a bar stool in a plexiglass box near a highway offramp in central Taiwan. It's late afternoon and the 29-year-old is dressed in a red negligee, a fake rose planted firmly between her breasts. "I work from noon to midnight, and it's psychologically tiring," she says. "Furthermore," she adds, pointing to her husband a few yards away, "he takes all the money." Before you jump to conclusions, she isn't selling her body. In fact, she's using her body to sell . . .

Taiwan's military airlifted survivors from remote mountain villages devastated by mudslides triggered by last weekend's Typhoon Morakot, and announced today that it was sending an additional 4,000 soldiers to help with the rescue effort. The new troops will join the more than 10,000 soldiers already racing to save thousands of survivors stranded in several villages in the island's south, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Rescue efforts have been slow because many bridges and roads to hard-hit villages collapsed or were washed out by raging floodwaters.

The opposition Nationalist Party won an overwhelming victory Saturday in closely watched Taiwanese legislative elections widely seen as a preview of March's presidential contest. The results were viewed as a vote of no confidence in the administration of President Chen Shui-bian, who has alienated many voters with his contentious style and policy reversals during a period of disappointing economic growth and increased tensions with Beijing.

A few yards from the four-room house where President Chen Shui-bian grew up, a life-size cutout leans against a wall. Tourists used to arrive in droves and have their photo taken with the "president," earning neighbors a steady income. These days the visitors are largely gone, the prop weather-worn and seemingly forgotten. "We haven't had any real business in years," said Chen, a 60-year-old retiree and distant relative with silver teeth and a pink shirt, who declined to give her first name.

Taiwan's vice premier announced Monday that he would quit his job and resign from the ruling party, taking responsibility for a widening scandal in which $30 million worth of secret diplomatic funds has gone missing. Chiou I-jen's resignation followed his disclosure late last week that he helped transfer the money to a Taiwanese middleman as part of an attempt to convince Papua New Guinea to drop its official recognition of China in favor of Taiwan.

Former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian resigned from the opposition party Friday after Swiss authorities requested help in an investigation of suspected money laundering involving his family members. Taiwan's Justice Ministry said in a statement released late Thursday that its Swiss counterpart wanted information on Chen's son, Chen Chih-chung, and daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching. The island's authorities said they were cooperating with the inquiry.

The Air Force and Army have disciplined 17 senior officers, including the three-star general in charge of logistics, for poor oversight in connection with the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of fuses for nuclear warheads. Saying he could not ignore the "breaches of trust that occurred on their watch," acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley laid out Thursday what in some cases were career-ending punishments for six Air Force generals, ranging in rank from one to three stars, and nine colonels.

China has canceled a senior military visit to Washington and shelved other military and diplomatic contacts to protest an announced $6.5-billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, Pentagon and State Department officials said Monday. "The Chinese reaction is unfortunate and results in missed opportunities," said Marine Corps Maj. Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman, in a statement.

Tens of thousands of protesters in Taipei, Taiwan, marched Saturday against an upcoming visit by a senior Chinese envoy, fearful that China is trying to assert control over the island. The demonstration, organized by Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party, presents a challenge to President Ma Ying-jeou, who has made improved trade, political and cultural relations a cornerstone of his administration. Protesters, some wearing "Defend Taiwan" or "Stop Selling Taiwan!"

Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee grew up in Taiwan and started his career there. Now he wants to give back to its movie industry. He and younger brother and fellow filmmaker Lee Kang have started a program to cultivate Taiwanese directors by financing them and providing help in marketing, Lee Kang said Friday. "Nowadays directors have to do everything -- raising money, writing the script, securing government grants, shooting, producing and marketing," he said.