■ 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.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
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