■ COAST GUARD
Maritime drill scheduled
A maritime drill will be held in Suao (蘇澳) tomorrow to hone the coast guard's capability to respond to hijack threats as the number of incidents rises, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. Late last month, an Ilan-registered fishing boat, the Yu Chang 66, was hijacked by a Chinese deckhand and forced to head to Fujian Province in China. Earlier this month, a Nanfangao-registered fishing boat, the Chin Fu Yu, was also hijacked and forced to sail to the Fujian coast, CGA officials said, adding that both vessels were able to return to Taiwan and none of the crew members were hurt in the incidents. Tomorrow's drill is also aimed at honing the coast guard's combat readiness and ability to respond to other undesirable incidents, the officials said.
■ POLITICS
Ma rejects academic's claim
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday rejected a US academic's remarks that he supports the "one country, two systems" framework originally proposed by late Chinese president Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) during the early 1980s, arguing that he had never agreed with it. "I strongly oppose such a proposal, and my stance has never changed. I feel sorry that an American who isn't familiar with the situation at all would make such an accusation," Ma said, in response to comments made by Bruce Herschensohn, a professor of public policy who served in the administrations of US presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) published yesterday. Herschensohn was quoted in the interview as saying that he would not be surprised if Ma adopted the "one country, two systems" policy if he were elected president.
■ WEATHER
Temperature hits record
The temperature in Dawu Township (大武) in Taitung County soared to 37.4?C yesterday, a new high for the nation so far this year, the Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday. The peak temperature, which was recorded at 12:16pm, was caused by foehn winds, bureau officials said, adding that a foehn wind occurs when a deep layer of prevailing wind is forced over a mountain range -- in this case, the Central Mountain Range. In Keelung, the temperature rose to 37.3?C at 1:14pm, making it the hottest day in May in the city's history, the officials added.
■ CRIME
Counterfeit suspects nabbed
Three people have been turned over to the prosecution after being caught selling fake or substandard products on a local auction Web site, the Criminal Investigation Bureau announced yesterday. The three suspects, identified only by their surnames Hu, Chen and Yeh, were handed over to the Banciao Prosecutor's Office a day earlier for investigation on charges of trademark infringement. The detentions came after police, acting on tip-offs provided by online buyers who claimed to have been cheated, raided their offices and warehouses in Taipei County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, where more than 1,000 counterfeit goods fabricated in China were stored. Police said the products the three men auctioned on local Web sites -- mainly memory chips, batteries and cellphone components -- were counterfeits neatly packaged and sold at unfairly low prices.
■ EDUCATION
Professor awarded title
A civil engineering professor of National Taiwan University was awarded the title of Academician by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna on Thursday. Yang Yeong-bin (楊永斌), who is also secretary-general of the Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan, was granted the title by the academy's president, Peter Schuster, becoming the first Taiwanese scholar to have earned the honor. The academy's former president, Herbert Mang, recommended Yang for the honor on the strength of his research papers on the theory of spatial structure stability and vibration of high-speed railway bridges, which have earned him respect in the international academic community. The academy, established in 1847, is similar to Taiwan's Academia Sinica in status and function.
■ POLITICS
Official in blog trouble
Taipei City Government Law and Regulation Committee commissioner Yeh Chin-yuan (葉慶元) came under attack from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors yesterday after he was caught updating his personal blog during a question-and-answer session at Taipei City Council. DPP City Councilor Wu Su-yao (吳思瑤) slammed Yeh for ignoring the session to write blog articles and urged Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to keep a closer eye on his team. "Not only did Yeh use work time to do personal things, but he spent a lot of time criticizing the DPP in his articles," Wu said. Yeh acknowledged the wrongdoing, and promised not to commit the same error. Yeh, however, was not the only city official to be caught slacking off at work. Department of Labor Director Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) has been caught updating a personal blog during office hours, while the former commissioner of the Research and Development Evaluation Commission, Jessica Chou (周韻采), was fired after being found doing yoga during office hours.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
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