■ SHIPPING
Nine sailors rescued
Helicopters and ships rescued nine crew members after their ship sank off the north coast in rough weather, the coast guard said yesterday. The ship, registered in the Central American nation of Belize, was carrying steel from Japan to Vietnam when it capsized in heavy seas early yesterday, cable station TVBS said. The ship had refueled in Keelung. The nine crew members, all Chinese nationals, escaped in an inflatable dinghy but drifted for more than an hour before helicopters and ships from the coast guard whisked them to safety, a coast guard official told the cable station. One crew member surnamed Sun, 50, was taken to the Mackay Memorial Hospital in nearby Tamsui (淡水) for treatment, but he was not in danger, the officials said.
■ SOCIETY
Singer in `glass house'
Singaporean pop singer Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) moved into a glass house next to the Taipei 101 skyscraper yesterday for a 24-hour stint to promote her latest CD. Her stay was being broadcast live on the Internet. Sun, 27, planned to spend 24 hours in the glass-and-steel structure. Her hair dyed a fiery red, Sun sat on a brightly colored sofa as photographers milled about. Her fans gathered outside, holding up umbrellas against the pouring rain. Other singers were planning to visit her, she told cable station ETTV. Sun said the temporary structure was more comfortable than she had expected. "I thought it would be a square box with a bed and a lamp," she said. Sun was planning to leave the house early this afternoon.
■ SOCIETY
Railway uses `feng shui'
The main entrance of Taipei Railway Station has been redesigned for better feng shui following a string of derailments and train delays, a railway official said over the weekend. Taiwan Railway Administration director Hsu Ta-wen (徐達文) said the administration had added a glass hallway to the station's main entrance to ward off evil spirits. The renovation was made at the suggestion of Master Hun Yuan (混元禪師), a well-known Buddhist master, Hsu said. The railway administration consulted Hun Yuan after several derailments, train delays and suicides on the tracks. Hun Yuan said the incidents had occurred because the station's main entrance faces a "white tiger demon." To avoid the demon, the main door had to be moved back 6m. The administration installed a glass hallway behind the main door, so that passengers now arriving at the station must enter two doors. Several lawmakers on Friday blasted the administration for squandering money on "superstition."
■ TOURISM
PRC delegation on the way
China's National Tourism Administration (NTA) hopes to send a delegation to Taiwan late this month to look into the local market in preparation for the lifting of restrictions on Chinese tourism, travel sources said. At the invitation of Taiwan's Travel Agent Association, NTA Director Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉) will head a 60-member delegation on a 10-day fact-finding visit, the sources said, adding that the delegation will consist of NTA staff members and tourism chiefs from major Chinese provinces and cities. In addition to touring major scenic spots such as Sun Moon Lake, Alishan and Hualien, the delegation will also visit administrative offices. Applications for the visit have been sent to the Tourism Bureau and the Mainland Affairs Council for approval.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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