■ Society
Men urged to doff suits
A group of women's rights and environmental activists called yesterday for men to discard business suits in the summer in favor of casual shirts to reduce reliance on air conditioning. The activists, led by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Shu-ying (黃淑英) urged the men to get stop wearing suits during summer to help save energy. Noting that air conditioning is the prime reason for surging power consumption in summer, Huang said that one degree higher on air conditioner thermostats nationwide in summer means the country could save 300 million kwhs -- the amount that Penghu residents use in an entire year. Wearing suits requires a temperature of between 22?C to 23?C to make an office or room comfortable in summer, Huang said, claiming that room temperatures could be raised if men wore less clothing.
SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
■ Cross-Strait Ties
20 feared dead in storm
At least 20 Chinese were feared dead after the Taiwanese boat they were being smuggled in went missing during foul weather, officials said yesterday. The missing boat -- the Hsin Lien Fa 23 -- was last seen Sunday drifting off Fukuichiao (富貴角) at Taiwan's northernmost tip, a coastguard official said. "Our information showed that more than 20 Chinese people were on the fishing boat which lost power at sea in bad weather," she said. According to the coast guard, the Chinese boarded the ship in Fujian Province earlier this week in an attempt to sneak to Taiwan. "The boat has been missing for several days and we fear it might have sunk. The chances for survival of those onboard are slim," the official added. However, Coast Guard Administration officials said yesterday that the boat's captain and a crewman were rescued by Chinese fishermen at sea and were being detained in Xiamen for questioning, the officials said.
■ Defense
MND denies drug allegations
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday denied a media report about widespread drug abuse in the military, claiming that the report is a far cry from the truth. In a press release, the ministry protested against the report and said that new conscripts that test positive for substance abuse are immediately subject to prosecution as a way to wipe out drugs in the military. Only seven out of the more than 5,100 new conscripts summoned to the Cheng Kung (成功) military base in Taichung County in the first six months of this year tested positive, the ministry said, noting that all of them were sent to law-enforcement authorities. The ministry claimed that the report has hurt the military's image.
■ Society
Hello Kitty talk starts brawl
A scuffle broke out late Thursday night between a group of Japanese tourists and locals at a restaurant in Wanhua (萬華), Taipei as result of language barriers and miscommunication. The group of seven Japanese were giggling and talking about the "Hello Kitty" magnets which have recently a stirred frenzy among fans and collectors in Taiwan. Thinking that the Japanese were laughing at them, a table of Taiwanese patrons next to them -- about 10 in all -- approached the group and somehow a fight started.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
GROUNDED: A KMT lawmaker proposed eliminating drone development programs and freezing funding for counterdrone systems, despite China’s adoption of the technology China has deployed attack drones at air bases near the Taiwan Strait in a strategy aimed at overwhelming Taiwan’s air defense systems through saturation attacks, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. The council’s latest quarterly report on China said that satellite imagery and open-source intelligence indicate that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had converted retired J-6 fighter jets into J-6W drones, which the PLA has stationed at six air bases near Taiwan, five in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province. The report cited J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the US-based Mitchell Institute, as saying that China has
Carrefour Taiwan is to begin using a new name from the start of July, but it cannot divulge the name until then, the chairman of the supermarket chain's parent company said today. President Chain Store Co chairman Lo Chih-hsien (羅智先) was asked by reporters after a shareholders' meeting to confirm whether the company has settled on a new name for the supermarket brand. In March, the government-registered name of two Carrefour Taiwan branches was quietly changed to "Le Chia Kang" (樂家康) in Chinese, raising speculation that has been selected as the name. Lo said that because of local regulations and contractual obligations, the
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