■ SHIPPING
Whirlpool behind sinking?
A Panama-registered ship may have sunk in a whirlpool last Tuesday, dragging down as many as 27 crew members within five minutes after the freighter was struck by a giant wave off the northern coast, the Coast Guard Administration said yesterday. The ship was carrying iron ore and an Indonesian crew of 28. One crew member was found alive, clinging to his life vest, on Wednesday. "A whirlpool effect is possible," a coast guard spokesman said after hearing the survivor's account. "Some of the sailors couldn't put on their lifejackets in time, so there are some who didn't make it up." Although the coast guard normally calls off searches within 72 hours, it has extended its hunt for the ship to a seventh day, using 12 boats and a helicopter.
■ WEATHER
Low temperatures forecast
Temperatures will fall today as the seasonal wind from the northeast gets stronger, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said a cold front is expected to arrive on Saturday. Forecaster Hsiao Chia-sen (蕭家森) said the weather in the north and northeastern regions started to become cool and humid yesterday. He said showers may occur in the north, northeast and the east of the nation. Temperatures are likely to rise tomorrow as the seasonal wind is likely to weaken, he said.
■ CROSS-STRAIT TIES
New Kinmen group planned
Civic activists on Kinmen will form an association to provide emergency disaster relief and first aid services across the Taiwan Strait, former Kinmen deputy commissioner Yen Ta-jen (顏達仁) said yesterday. He said the association was needed because of the growing amount of cross-strait boat travel between Kinmen and Xiamen in China. He said the group would provide assistance to people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Yen said the association would be established before the end of this month. Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李柱烽) supports the group, he said. An initial meeting of the association was heldon Sunday at the Hongbo Ceramics Factory, he said. "As direct shipping services between Kinmen and Fujian have become more popular, civic groups need to establish an emergency disaster relief and medical service," he said, adding that he believes the government will ease its policy on cross-strait travel. The number of people traveling between the two sides of the Strait was expected to increase to between 1 million and 2 million per year, Lee said. The new group would work with the Kinmen County Red Cross Organization and the Kinmen-Matsu Cross-Strait Interaction Association to provide emergency services, he said.
■ RESEARCH
Healthy hosiery invented
Industrial Technology Research Institute staffers have invented stockings that can repel mosquitos and socks that reduce the chance of developing a fungal infection, the institute said yesterday. "The stockings release an odor that repels mosquitos, but human beings cannot notice the smell. So women get fewer mosquito bites," a researcher said. The key was adding mosquito repellent during the dyeing process, he said. The institute has also invented socks which can reduce the chance of developing "Hong Kong foot." "We add an anti-bacterial agent into the material of the socks ... during the dyeing process. The agent restrains the growth of mildew and bacteria," he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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