Sandstorms whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand and grit Monday, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was the latest sign of the effects of desertification: Overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought have expanded deserts in the country's north and west. The shifting sands have ...

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Sunday left for the US territory of Guam for a stopover on his way to six Asia-Pacific allies in a week-long visit that may irk China. The trip will take Ma on to the Solomon Islands, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu, which all recognise Taipei rather than Beijing. During a speech ...

Taiwan's air force said Sunday that it had received more than three million dollars' worth of parts and maintenance service because of a flaw in the island's French-made Mirage fighter fleet. The air force had been effectively compensated in November over cracks in the blades of several Mirage engines which had prompted the air force to reduce the ...

A UN body on Sunday rejected the monitoring of trade in dwindling stocks of precious corals days after nixing a ban on bluefin tuna, raising doubts about its capacity to oversee high-value species. The Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Doha until Thursday, shot down the proposal despite an 85 percent drop since 1980 in global ...