A driver tried to ram his car early Tuesday into the residence of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou in the second such incident in a year.

Chen Ping-sung attempted to ram a door of Ma's guarded residence in central Taipei, police said.

Taiwan's special envoy to the upcoming APEC summit in Beijing dismissed concerns on Monday about a recent series of disputes which has overshadowed improved ties with China.

Former vice president Vincent Siew, President Ma Ying-jeou's envoy to the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, said ties with the mainland are on the right track from a long-term perspective.

At 70 years old, Taiwan's World War II-era "Hai Pao" submarine would not be out of place in a museum, but the antique vessel is still part of the navy -- a sign of the island's ongoing struggle to strengthen its fleet.

The sub's interior gleams with highly polished copper and is the pride of its crew.

Taiwan's navy successfully test-fired two anti-ship missiles from a submarine, in the first such exercise since the weapons were acquired from the United States, local media reported Sunday.

The Harpoon missiles were launched from Hai Hu (Sea Tiger), a Dutch-built conventional submarine, during a drill last week, the Liberty Times and the United Daily News said, citing unnamed naval sources.

Two Taiwanese scientists died and 43 other people were rescued when a marine research ship sank off Taiwan after hitting a reef, coastguard officials said Saturday.

Emergency treatment failed to revive the pair after the vessel "Ocean Researcher V", carrying 27 researchers and 18 crew members, sank off the Penghu islands on Friday, officials said.

Thousands of slogan-chanting Taiwan residents rallied late Wednesday to support the growing pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, with one saying the city faces a "life-and-death" moment.

The crowd, many of them Hong Kong students studying in Taiwan universities, raised their fists and sang "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies", a song by the 1980s Hong Kong band Beyond which has become a theme tune of the protests.

A college student threw a book at Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou as he left a Taipei hotel to protest increasingly cordial relations with China, his office confirmed Saturday.

The student glanced a copy of "Formosa Betrayed" off the leader, a highly critical historical account of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party in the years after World War II, in the incident on Friday.

Tropical storm Fung-Wong on Sunday pounded Taiwan with torrential downpours and powerful winds, killing one person and forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights and ferry services.

A 50-year-old drowned near his home in Peinan, a township in southeastern Taitung county, the Central Emergency Operation Center said, while another man in the county was injured by falling rocks. 

Taiwan on Saturday readied nearly 50,000 troops in preparation for tropical storm Fung-Wong as it churns toward the island with threats of downpours and powerful winds after claiming five lives in the Philippines.

Three counties in southern Taiwan have decided to close offices and schools from Saturday night while dozens of flights and ferry services were suspended, authorities said.

A Taiwanese court on Wednesday sentenced a former intelligence officer to 18 years in prison for spying for China, the latest in a series of espionage scandals in recent years.