Military officials were starting Friday to piece together what may have pushed an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress to turn on his comrades in a shooting rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 30 in Texas.

The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 -- and is likely to go higher.

Premier Wu Den-yih yesterday threatened legal action against a former opposition lawmaker who accused him of colluding with a gangster.

His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.

The Council of Agriculture (COA) rejected a claim Friday that the influenza A (H1N1) virus recently detected among pigs in the eastern county of Taitung might not have been transmitted from humans.

More than 190 aftershocks had been recorded as of early Friday since an earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale hit central Taiwan a day earlier, seismologists said that day.

An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood, Texas Army post Thursday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.

Gunmen on a motorcycle wounded a senior army officer and soldier in the Pakistani capital Friday, the third such attack in about two weeks as militants retaliate against a new military offensive along the Afghan border.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pushed Mideast peace prospects into unknown territory by announcing he doesn't want another term and opening the way to a succession battle that could play into the hands of his rival, the militant Hamas.

Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 won all five awards it was nominated for Thursday at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, including two of the top awards of the night and honors in both urban and alternative categories.

Taiwan has joined nine other nations on a list of countries with the H1N1 swine flu virus being passed from humans to pigs after the Council of Agriculture (COA) confirmed the first documented cases on the island yesterday.

A cat in Iowa has tested positive for H1N1 swine flu, the first time a cat has been diagnosed with the new pandemic strain, the American Veterinary Medical Association said on Wednesday.

The worst earthquake since the Sept. 21 quake ten years ago jolted the island, sent many running, stopped the bullet train, toppled ceilings but luckily caused no major damage and injury yesterday afternoon.

Angry German workers planned protests Thursday after General Motors said it would cut some 10,000 jobs at its European unit Opel in a move slammed as a slap in the face for Chancellor Angela Merkel.