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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Fisheries
Crew members rescued
The Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday the eight crew members of a Taiwanese fishing vessel have been rescued and they are all fine, adding that the COA will offer them necessary assistance through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as soon as possible. The eight crew members were reported missing Saturday after a Taiwanese fishing boat exploded in the Pacific off Central America, Costa Rican officials said. The Shin Jyi Wanq exploded late Friday 92km off the Pacific coast, and the Taiwanese captain was reported missing, along with his seven Chinese crew members. The Public Safety Ministry issued a statement that the Costa Rican patrol boat Pancha Carrasco had found the floating, burned-out hulk of the Taiwanese vessel. "Fire had consumed nearly the entire ship," and there was not a trace of the crew, the statement said.

■ Crime
Teacher nabbed in drug bust
A lecturer at a science-technology university in Taipei County was nabbed Saturday for producing illicit drugs at the laboratory where he teaches, police reported yesterday. The university teacher, Fang Te-ming (方德明), who has double masters degrees in mechanics and chemistry from a US university, was caught red-handed with his accomplices during a police raid at the lab Saturday night, police authorities from Panchiao and Hsinchuang cities said. Fang, 42, was apprehended along with several of his accomplices, including a drug pusher nicknamed "White Monkey." Also seized at the lab were 14kg of amphetamine, 148kg of semi-finished amphetamine and equipment that they used to produce the drug.

■ Society
Most back Web site rating
Nearly 90 percent of people questioned in a recent poll threw their support behind a government plan to impose a rating system on Web site content. The poll, conducted by the Govern-ment Information Office (GIO) between Nov. 15 and Nov. 16, found that 89.4 percent of respondents said that they supported the GIO's plan to ask Internet content providers to rate their contents and label restricted Web sites. Eighty-five percent voiced their support for the policy to encourage parents to set up pass codes on home computers to block children from viewing pornographic material. The survey also found that 83.6 percent of the respondents said that they approved of the GIO's policy of asking vendors to wrap up R-rated publications and CDs in plastic bags and sell them in special sections.

■ Politics
Pan-blue march to be held
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is planning a large scale march in Taipei on Dec. 5 in order to consolidate its voter support, the KMT confirmed yesterday. While plans to include the KMT's ally, the People First Party (PFP), are still being discussed, the KMT is planning to have over 100,000 people march from the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to the legislature to symbolize the KMT's election slogan: "Only by taking the right road, will Taiwan have a way out." During the rally, the KMT will call on pan-blue supporters to not only support the pan- blue camp in its efforts to win a majority of seats in the Dec. 11 elections, but also to defend the nation's title as the "Republic of China."

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