Nearly 1,000 pigs have been culled in the offshore county of Penghu after some hogs on the auction block at the county's meat market on Tuesday were spotted with blisters in their mouths — a symptom of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said in a statement.

Taiwan's outlying Matsu Island chain is hoping to capitalize on its history to reposition itself as a spot for “romantic military tourism,” the local government said.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) rescued on Tuesday a Taiwanese businessman abducted in January in mainland China, picking him up on a “no mans land” of Penghu Island. The two suspected kidnappers, who asked for a NT$300 million ransom, have been arrested.

After the casino project in Penghu was vetoed by local residents' referendum in 2009, another casino project in offshore islands such as Kinmen and Matsu is underway.

Officials urged people in the aquaculture sector to take adequate measures to prevent onslaught against their fish by cold weather as the temperature will remain low. The offshore Penghu County already reported loss of NT$90 million from fish frozen to death.

The Kinmen County government is determined to develop the outlying island as a duty-free zone and will invite tenders for duty-free shops at Kinmen airport later this year, county Magistrate Li Wo-shi said yesterday.

A 20-year-old soldier serving on Taiwan's outlying island of Kinmen shot himself dead at his barracks yesterday, for reasons yet to be ascertained, Kinmen military authorities said that day.

A Taiwanese businessman wanted by the Chinese authorities was caught entering Taiwan illegally off the waters of Xiaojinmen (小金門) when fleeting China and was transferred to the Jinmen (金門) Prosecutor's Office yesterday, the Coast Guard Administration said.

A Kinmen County government-run liquor company reported record high sales in 2010 and vowed to push for a further expansion of its capacity to maintain its competitiveness.

Kinmen Bridge — an infrastructure project that has been in the planning for the past two decades and that will be Taiwan's longest sea-crossing bridge upon its completion in 2016 — began construction yesterday during a groundbreaking ceremony.