Hualien's famed summer carnivals are once again in session, with concerts featuring a lineup of the hottest local celebrities followed by a series of fun-filled activities happening on Taiwan's east coast right now.

Police have arrested two men in connection with a theft of platinum worth over NT$44 million from a high-tech company in Hsinchu County, officials said yesterday.

Taiwan's pavilion from the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai could begin operations in Hsinchu City by the end of this year, and has already attracted business groups to make a bid to operate the site, Hsinchu Mayor Hsu Ming-tsai said Wednesday.

A Hsinchu taxi driver, surnamed Weng, was robbed and stuffed into the trunk of his own cab by a customer on May 9. He was found and rescued later that night thanks to his wife and the GPS set up in his car.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday confirmed the first cluster of indigenous typhoid fever cases this year and urged the public to pay attention to food sanitation when ordering take-out meals.

A socialite led a number of young women dressed in bikini yesterday in holding a protest at the Hsinchu Science Park over a dog-walking dispute.

The National Immigrations Agency (NIA) yesterday rescued a female Indonesian worker from an abusive Hsinchu County couple, who were discovered to have illegally hired the woman through a third party.

Police in Hsinchu City promised yesterday to continue the investigation into a case in which seven teenager students bullied a 15-year-old female students, although the victim said she wants to put the whole affair behind her so that she can resume her peaceful life.

More than 12,000 people in northern Hsinchu area joined a public event to plant trees as part of the campaign to help offset carbon dioxide emissions.

The governor of China's Liaoning province yesterday visited a house in northern Taiwan which once belonged to a general also from the northeastern province who kidnapped Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and changed the course of modern Chinese history.