■ 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.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56