The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ office in Mumbai, India, remains in contact with the Indian Coast Guard’s District Headquarters No. 4 amid a search, including for two missing Taiwanese, after a container ship operated by Taiwan-based Wan Hai Lines caught fire off the west coast of southern India on Monday, ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said yesterday.
Of the 22 crew members onboard the Wan Hai 503, 18 abandoned the ship and were rescued, but the remaining four people were missing after the incident near the port of Beypore, the company said in a statement.
The four missing are two Taiwanese, one from Indonesia and one from Myanmar, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India said.
Photo: CNA
The Malayalam-language Kerala Kaumudi reported that the rescued crew members — including four Taiwanese — were escorted ashore by the Indian Navy.
The Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy had launched a search operation for those still missing, media reports said.
Indian media reported that the vessel was carrying highly explosive cargo, but the situation has yet to be clarified by the company.
In other news, Hsiao said that no Taiwanese have been arrested or reported injured during the protests against federal immigration raids in Los Angeles.
The ministry and Taiwan’s representative office in Los Angeles are monitoring the protests, which mainly took place in the downtown area and the city of Paramount, where few Taiwanese live, he said.
People visiting the representative office are not likely to be affected, as it is far from the protest areas, he said.
Hsiao called on Taiwanese to avoid protest sites and enforcement zones.
In case of an emergency, Taiwanese should call emergency services in the US on 911 or the office’s emergency hotline at 213-923-3591.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed