SOCIETY
Motorist thankful for life
A motorist driving on the twisting roads of Yuemei Mountain (月眉山) in Keelung almost ended up in a ravine over the weekend after attempting to dodge a motorcycle that appeared around a bend going in the opposite direction. The Keelung Police Department Second Precinct Sinyi police station received reports on Saturday that a silver car had sped off a road into a ravine on a winding mountain road on Yuemei Mountain. Upon arriving at the scene, police found the car balanced precariously on the road railing, in danger of falling into the mountain valley any moment. The 22-year-old driver, Hsiao Cheng-lin (蕭鉦霖), was squatting along the roadside, pale and trembling. Had the vehicle hit the railing any harder, it would have plunged into the valley below, Hsiao said.
SPORTS
Taipei hosts sports forum
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) Forum, hosted by Taiwan for the first time, opened yesterday in Taipei, with representatives from more than 60 countries gathering to discuss education, sports and culture. In particular, participants will discuss the sustainable development of university sports, but students and university sport leaders from around the world will also have the opportunity to debate major social issues, FISU president Claude-Louis Gallien said. “I encourage you all to take this opportunity to discuss, exchange, share, in a word, to learn,” Gallien said in his opening remarks at the 11th FISU forum. “There is nothing like sports,” he said. “It should be part of the best education.” Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped the participants would also spend time exploring Taipei. A total of 220 representatives from 67 countries will attend the forum, which runs through Saturday.
CRIME
TSU reaffirms Lin position
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday reiterated that Justin Lin (林毅夫), who defected to China in 1979 and currently works as a vice president at the World Bank, should not be allowed to return to Taiwan because of his continued act of treason. TSU party whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said Lin’s case was different from the spies who were captured in China, making the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) planned prisoner exchange program illegitimate because Lin “had betrayed the army, Taiwan and his comrades.” Lin’s return would pave the way for the return of other Taiwanese defectors, TSU lawmaker Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) said. The TSU said it supports the position of the Ministry of National Defense, which said on March 14 that Lin would be arrested and face treason charges if he returned.
SCHOLARSHIP
ICBSS hopes for partnership
A prestigious Athens-based think tank said it hopes to form a partnership with the Taiwan Academy in an effort to enhance academic exchanges between Taiwan and Greece. The International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS), founded in 1998, is committed to promoting multilateral cooperation between the countries in the Black Sea region and with their international partners. ICBSS head Zefi Dimadama said the institute was planning to cooperate with the Taiwan Academy — a brainchild of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) aimed at spreading “Chinese culture with unique Taiwanese characteristics” throughout the world. Taiwan’s representative to Greece, Agnes Chen (陳華玉), said her office has already been in contact with the institute to discuss how to further strengthen academic exchanges.
WILDLIFE
Park hopes to track birds
Officials at a national park in Greater Tainan on Sunday said it would work with a wetland administrator in Shanghai to track black-faced spoonbills by satellite to study the birds’ migration patterns. The Taijiang National Park Administration said it plans to attach satellite transmitters to five black-faced spoonbills and release two in Tainan and one in the Chongming Dongtan Birds Nature Reserve in Shanghai to track their annual migration. The administration hopes to release the other two birds in South Korea, but has not yet contacted South Korean authorities, it said. The administration is also waiting for approval from the Council of Agriculture to fit the transmitters to the birds. It added that the batteries on the device can last for about a year.
ENTERTAINMENT
Nikki Hsieh wins award
Taiwanese actress Nikki Hsieh (謝欣穎) took the Best Actress award at the 10th Asian Film Festival in Italy for her role as a corpse makeup artist in the movie Make Up (命運化妝師), the festival announced on its Web site on Sunday. “I’m very happy. I think I’m really lucky and I’d like to thank all my supporters,” she said. “I could never win too many awards and I hope to win more,” she was quoted as saying by the Chinese-language Apple Daily. Hsieh also won a Best Actress award for her performance in the Chinese-language film at last year’s Taipei Film Festival. Also at the Italian festival, Taiwanese director Cheng Fen-fen (鄭芬芬) won the Best Original Film award for her movie Bear It (熊熊愛上你). The festival, which began on March 16 and ended on Saturday, screened 40 films from Taiwan, Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard