SHANGHAI - CONSTRUCTION is set to begin on Saturday on a 632-metre Chinese scroll-shaped glass tower that will be the country's tallest, in what officials are calling a symbol of hope in a time of financial crisis.

BEIJING - CHINA has executed a businessman convicted of bilking thousands of investors out of US$416 million (S$628 million) in a bogus ant-breeding scheme, state media reported on Thursday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Wang Zhendong, who was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to death in February last year, was executed in north China's Liaoning province on Wednesday.

TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S jailed former president ended a 16-day hunger strike on Thursday, a prison official said, a day after Taiwanese newspapers published a poem in which he hinted he was willing to die for his pro-independence views.

Lee Ta-chu, deputy head of Tucheng Jail in suburban Taipei, said Chen Shui-bian ate a small portion of porridge shortly after noon.