The Tai-Ex opened up 124-points this morning from yesterday's close, at

31,371 on turnover of 9.7-billion N-T.

The market moved sharply lower on Wednesday following heavy losses on Wall

Street overnight.

Analysts say investors opted to dump their holdings in panic as sentiment was

hit by the big losses on U-S indexes overnight.

While Wednesday was also the settlement date for January futures contracts,

so selling increased, with foreign institutional investors holding more

short-position contracts than long-position ones … and tech stocks remained

the targets of the sell-off.

The D-P-P has finalized its candidates for key mayoral positions in southern

Taiwan.

According to the party, it has approved Lai Jui-lung as the D-P-P's candidate

for the Kaohsiung mayoral election, Tsai Yi-yu as its candidate for the post

of Chiayi County magistrate, and Chen Ting-fei as its Tainan mayoral

candidate,.

Final approval for all three candidates was made during a meeting of the

D-P-P's s Central Executive Committee.

President Lai Ching-te, who doubles as the party chairman, says he hopes the

candidates will integrate (整合) local efforts and support other party

members seeking office in November's local elections.

Rescuers in Japan have spotted wreckage (殘骸) believed to be from a

sightseeing helicopter that was carrying two Taiwanese tourists and a

Japanese pilot that went missing near one of Japan's most active volcanoes

Authorities say the helicopter lost contact during what should have been a

10-minute flight over Mount Aso in southern Japan on Monday.

According to local police, the wreckage, possibly of the missing helicopter,

was spotted inside the crater of Nakadake, one of Mt. Aso's five peaks.

However, officials had said bad weather and high levels of volcanic gases

were hampering (阻礙) the rescue operation.

Taiwan's representative office in Fukuoka says it was notified of a

helicopter crash involving the two Taiwanese tourists immediately after the

accident occurred.

US President Donald Trump's bid to control the US central bank looks set to

be rejected by the Supreme Court.

During arguments on Wednesday, justices from across the ideological spectrum

(政治光譜) appeared concerned that the president's efforts to fire one of the

Federal Reserve's leaders, could imperil its independence.

Kate fisher reports from Washington

Peru's interim President Jose Jeri is facing scrutiny (細看，仔細審查) for

unregistered meetings with two Chinese business owners.

On Wednesday, he appeared before a congressional oversight committee to

address these encounters, which have sparked a criminal probe and calls for

his removal.

Jeri denies wrongdoing and claims the opposition's actions are a

destabilizing maneuver ahead of the April 12 election.

Earlier this week, Peru’s attorney general’s office said it has launched a

preliminary investigation against Jeri for the alleged crimes of influence

peddling and illegal lobbying.

That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _____.

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