Taiwan Quick Take

■ Justice
Accused spy free on bail
A Taiwanese businessman accused of passing secrets about the nation's weapons systems to China was freed on bail yesterday. The High Court said Yeh Yu-chen (葉裕鎮) was freed on bail of NT$300,000 (US$8,800) because there was no longer a concern that he might collude with witnesses and hamper investigations. Yeh was detained in August along with two other suspects -- Hsu Shih-jear (許希哲), a Taiwanese-American engineer, and Chen Shih-liang (陳士良), a technician at Taiwan's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, which makes weapons for the military. Hsu and Chen posted bail earlier. All three are confined to their residences as they await their trials, court prosecutors said. Yeh, allegedly recruited by China as a spy two years ago, was accused of getting Chen to sell him information about Taiwan's war command system, anti-submarine defense plan and troop deployments. Hsu, a former engineer at Boeing Co, was accused of helping Yeh obtain information about defense systems that Taiwan has built with US technology.

■ Health
Blood centers ask for help
The Kaohsiung Blood Donation Center said yesterday that hospitals in Kaohsiung and Pingtung have almost run out of blood and urged people in the area to donate. A spokesman for the center said that under normal conditions, there is a seven-day blood supply, or 7,700 bags, but now there is only one-and-a-half days of supply in the blood bank of the Kaohsiung and Pingtung area. Nationwide, he said, there is less than a three-day supply. Hospitals will not have sufficient blood to use in case of a major accident unless donations increase, he said.

■ Environment
Spoonbill numbers down
Despite weather in recent days, the number of endangered black-faced spoonbills wintering at a wetlands reserve in Tainan has not increased significantly, conservationists said yesterday. A record high of 706 of the rare birds spent the winter in the Chiku marshes last year. As of Sunday, only 617 black-faced spoonbills had arrived at the Chiku wetlands at the estuary of the Tsengwen River. Conservationists said a worldwide spoonbill census will be conducted next month and that it remains uncertain whether the global population of the rare species has declined due to the mass die-off that occurred in Taiwan late last year and early this year as a result of botulism. Botulism caused the death of 73 of the birds between late last year and early this year.

■ Cross-strait ties
PRC fishermen welcomed
The government allowed Chinese fishermen hired by local crews to berth in Taiwan for the first time yesterday, an apparent olive branch to Beijing following weeks of acrimony. At least 200 Chinese fishermen became the first accepted on shore under the new regulations after arriving at the northeastern Nanfangau harbor on a Taiwanese fishing boat, the Fisheries Administration said. New buildings at the harbor will accommodate up to 800 Chinese fishermen, and three other harbors -- in Keelung, Hsinchu and Taichung -- will be able to house another 400 altogether. "The living conditions of the Chinese fishermen will be enhanced accordingly," a Fisheries Administration official told the media, describing the change as a humanitarian move. The measures were seen a goodwill gesture to China, which has prohibited its nationals from accepting employment on Taiwanese fishing boats since December 2001.