Investigators have made a breakthrough in their quest to find out how the captain and crew vanished from a Taiwanese fishing boat found drifting on the high seas off Australia's northwest coast, news reports said yesterday.
Local calls made in Bali and in the Philippines were from mobile phones belonging to the captain and first mate, both of whom are Taiwanese.
The phones might have been taken by pirates or mutineers, according to Australia's AAP news agency, which quoted Taiwanese sources about the phone records of the two missing sailors.
The Indonesian-flagged vessel also had 10 Indonesian crew members.
Australian investigators are trying to piece together the movements of the High Aim 6 between Oct. 31, when it left the port of Liuchiu in Taiwan, and Jan. 8, when it was boarded by navy personnel 250km off the west coast of Broome in Western Australia.
There was plenty of fuel, as well as food and water, on the modern long-line fishing boat when it was boarded. There was no sign of a struggle and no evidence that lifeboats were laun-ched. Personal belongings were also found on the 130-tonne vessel, including seven toothbrushes.
A catch of rotting fish in the hold was taken as evidence that the High Aim 6 was a legitimate fishing vessel.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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