■ 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.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
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