■ Missing person
Student's body found
The body of a South Korean student who came to Taiwan to study Chinese was found at a water pumping station near National Chengchi University in Mucha, police said yesterday. Police said that initial investigations showed that Ryeo Yun-koo, 24, who had been missing since March 22, appeared to have drowned, however, the exact cause of his death will be determined after an autopsy. They said that Ryeo had transferred from Chi-nese Culture University to National Chengchi Univer-sity on March 3. On March 22, he went out with South Korean friends for dinner and drinks. Ryeo's guardians in Taiwan then reported him missing. National Chengchi University officials looked for the student on campus.
Police suspected that Ryeo, under the influence of alcohol and not familiar with the terrain of the school, might have fallen into the water at the pumping station.
■ Humanitarian aid
Tzu Chi aids refugees
Taiwan's Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation in Amman, Jordan yesterday sent eight volunteers to deliver toys, biscuits and drinking water to a refugee camp on the border between Jordan and Iraq. A spokesman for the foundation said there are 250 refugees, including 40 children, in the camp some 300km east of Amman. The foundation also sent 26 volunteers on April 4 to deliver bottled drinking water, clothing, sugar, tea leaves and stationery to refugee camps on the border between Jordan and Iraq, the spokesman said. The foundation plans to send school bags for the children in the camps in the near future, he added.
■ Diplomacy
First lady encourages
First lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) praised a women's group yesterday for its contribution to "people's diplomacy" and urged them to take part more in international exchanges. Wu was addressing the 2003 annual convention of Soroptimist International of Taiwan Region in Kaohsiung, in which more than 200 representatives from around the country participated. Wu praised the performance of the organization and its regional head, Chen Ku Mei-kuei (陳辜美貴), saying that what she described as "the feminine attributes" of caring and tenderness have built the momentum to push the society upward. She also expressed the hope that more women will dedicate themselves to international exchanges. Chen Ku noted that group is one of the few organizations that has joined the UN's non-governmental organizations in the capacity as a country, adding that with the excellent perfor-mance of the nation's women and their selfless devotion, the group has raised Tai-wan's international profile.
■ Nuclear power
No further cancellation
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that there is no question that construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant will be suspended again. The premier was responding to questions by KMT Legislator Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻), who expres-sed concern about who would be responsible for another possible suspension of the plant, saying that the government paid a hefty price when it suspended construction before. His query follows the suspen-sion of dredging for a wharf for the power plant because of erosion to Fulung Beach -- which could affect delivery of the plant's nuclear reactor and the scheduled opera-tional date of July 15, 2006 of the first unit of the plant's two reactors.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
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