Taiwan

But the anthem that played for the first Taiwanese athlete to ever win gold -- she won gold at the 2004 Olympics in the lightweight taekwondo competition -- was not the one Chen heard growing up, nor was the flag in front of her the red and blue of Taiwan.

Instead, Chen stood under the white banner of "Chinese Taipei," a nation that does not exist, the result of a political compromise stemming from divisions that have existed since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

A network of criminals from eastern Europe and Russia used malware to hack into dozens of First Commercial Bank ATMs, police say.

CCTV footage shows masked thieves walking away with bags of stolen cash.

One Latvian man was held in northeast Taiwan, while two other suspects were arrested in the capital Taipei.

More than half of the money has been recovered but another 13 suspects are believed to have fled the country.

Bags of cash

  So far, one death and about 66 injuries have been reported by the Taiwan Central Emergency Operations Center as the typhoon packed winds of up to 240 kph (150 mph).

The storm hammered the eastern coast of Taiwan with torrential rain and wind for several hours prior to arrival, with photos on social media showing cars destroyed by the onslaught.

Some locations have already seen more than 300 mm of rain in just the past 12 hours, while conditions are expected to worsen across central and southern Taiwan for another 12 hours.

The result should be deeply unsettling to China, which may respond by further reducing Taipei's already limited ability to win diplomatic allies and participate in international organizations.

In a statement issued after Tsai's win, the Chinese Cabinet's body for handling Taiwan affairs reaffirmed its opposition to Taiwan independence, but said it would work to maintain peace and stability between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In a meeting in Taipei with visiting Nauru President Baron Waqa, Ma said Taiwan will help Nauru halve its use of diesel for power generation by 2020.

To this end, Taiwan will provide the island country with solar-powered lighting equipment and energy-saving lamps, Ma said.

During his stay in Taiwan, Waqa will meet with President Ma Ying-jeou, Foreign Minister David Lin and other senior government officials, and visit central and southern Taiwan, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

Waqa is visiting Taiwan for the 10th time and the third time as president of the Republic of Nauru, the statement said.

A precursor to an import ban, the ‘yellow card’ issued by the European Union to Taiwan for failing to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, comes after Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior busted a pirate Taiwanese tuna vessel off Papua New Guinea waters three weeks ago in an example of the lack of control over Taiwanese fishing vessels.

Torrential rains and high winds are predicted across Taiwan from Monday afternoon as Dujuan neared the east coast, with landfall predicted around 11pm local time.

Taiwan’s weather bureau upgraded Dujuan to a “strong typhoon” Sunday – it’s top category.

Other regional weather bureaus, including the Hong Kong Observatory, categorised it as a “super typhoon” as it intensified to reach gusts of 227km per hour.

“It is due to exert influence from noon after its edge reaches the island,” said an official at Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.

Greenpeace activists say they discovered a falsified log book and almost 100 kilos of shark fins when they boarded the vessel on the high seas in the north west Pacific earlier this month.

The environmental group's Lagi Toribau says the Taiwan Fisheries Agency is now escorting the Shuen De Ching No 888 back to Taiwan where the ship faces suspension from operations for up to a year.

The 30 participants, all from countries that are Taiwan's diplomatic allies, are receiving training in the areas of automobile maintenance, carpentry and electrical engineering, said Lee Pai-po deputy secretary-general of the Taipei-based International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF).

The programme, which started Sept. 4 and runs until Dec. 22, is aimed at cultivating seed instructors for vocational training in the participating Pacific island countries, namely Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands, Lee said at a news briefing.