■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA to address spill
Following Monday’s oil spill, when Panama-registered cargo ship the Morning Sun ran aground 300m off of Taipei County’s Shimen Township (石門), the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday in a press release that a group of experts had inspected the stranded ship and would formulate a cleanup plan soon. About 120 people have been hired to help with the oil cleanup in the ocean, the EPA said, adding that the remaining fuel oil on the 14,000-tonne ship would be extracted as early as tomorrow. The accident happened on Monday night, when the crew of the Morning Sun, seeking shelter from the wind, pulled close to the Taiwan coast during its voyage from Singapore to South Korea. The EPA said the cleanup would take several weeks to complete and no ecologically sensitive regions were in the vicinity.
■ CULTURE
Chrysanthemums on display
The 2008 Shilin Presidential Residence Chrysanthemum Exhibition will begin tomorrow at the Shilin Presidential Residence. The exhibition, which will run through Nov. 31, will be free and open to the public between 8am and 7pm. Taipei City’s Parks and Street Lights Office said the exhibition this year showcases Ichimonji-giku, the chrysanthemum used in the imperial crest in Japan, and more than 100,000 pots of chrysanthemums will be featured in the exhibition. The exhibition will also feature chrysanthemum art pieces, using the flowers to form the shapes of dragons and characters from Chinese opera. The event will feature musical performances and other activities over the weekend. For more information, visit the Web site at www.2008chshow.com.tw or call (02) 2881-2512.
A Straits Exchange Foundation official today warned that yielding to political pressure in exchange for access to China’s entertainment industry rarely ends well, amid rumors that China is seeking to lure Taiwanese K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜). Chou, more commonly known as Tzuyu, is the only Taiwanese member of the girl group Twice. Her contract with JYP Entertainment is set to expire at the end of this year, and there have been widespread reports that she would not renew it. She is reportedly planning to pursue solo activities under her parents’ agency, Yu Hai Entertainment (瑜海娛樂), although China has also reportedly offered
A tropical depression near Hainan that was once Typhoon Saudel may once again strengthen into a tropical storm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, but a sea warning for waters around Taiwan is unlikely. CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said that Saudel would return to being a weak tropical storm by late yesterday or early this morning. However, as the storm is to gradually weaken again and would head toward China’s Guangdong Province away from Taiwan, the chances that it would affect Taiwan enough for the CWA to issue a sea warning are relatively low,
NATURE TAKES ITS COURSE: The agency’s head said he felt a sense of loss watching red-banded snakes eat the babies, as they had decided on non-intervention The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released a documentary on a hundred-pace viper that had incubated 16 eggs, all of which hatched, but only a baby viper escaped after they were attacked by red-banded snakes. The agency’s Taichung branch last year launched the viper reproduction monitoring project soon after forest rangers Lin Chun-yu (林俊佑) and Chou Chia-cheng (周家成) spotted a pregnant hundred-pace viper in a grass-covered burrow near a parking lot in Tbulan Village (松鶴部落). The Atayal village, in Taichung’s Heping District (和平), is headed by Ecyang Yapu, who was positive about the project and assisted in access control and power
China has revised its National Defense Mobilization Law to prepare for a rapid transition to wartime, with an official today saying the measures are aimed at helping Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) fulfill his “historic mission of national unification.” The revised version of the mobilization law is to take effect on Oct. 1, marking the first major revision since the law was enacted in 2010. The amendments define national defense mobilization as measures taken in response to threats to national sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, security and development interests, including efforts to ensure rapid transition between peacetime and wartime and convert economic and
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