■ Accidents
Filipino seaman drowns
A Philippine seaman drowned in Kaohsiung Harbor yesterday after he was thrown into the sea by a falling log, police said. The victim, identified as 29-year-old Rubeng Salong, was a crew member on the Panama-registered Ho Feng No.7. The man was painting the cargo vessel when a log being unloaded from the ship fell and hit him at around 8:45am, police said. "A hoisting rope carrying three logs broke. One of the falling logs hit him and threw him into the sea," said Chen Chun-yuan, an official at the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau. The man's body was recovered after a two-hour search.
■ Humanitarian aid
TV anchor to visit refugees
A TV news anchorwoman from Taiwan is set to visit a refugee camp in Thailand for Karen refugees from Burma at the end of this month to cover the story of their situation for a campaign aimed at raising funds to help them. Ma Chien-hui (馬千惠), who is a member of the Eastern Multimedia Group, which has jointly organized the campaign with the Chinese Association for Human Rights, said she has completed preparations for her visit to the refugee camp located near the Thai town of Mae Sot near the border with Burma. She said she will do her best to convey the refugees' situation in the hope of arousing the love and compassion of the people of Taiwan. The campaign, aimed at raising funds to help the refugee children attend school, is also designed to collect money for medical aid for the refugees.
■ Diplomacy
US delegation set to arrive
A US congressional delegation composed of three members of the House of Representatives will arrive in Taipei tomorrow for a three-day visit. The visit by the three House members -- Earl Pomeroy, a Democrat, Tom Feeney, a Republican, and Eni Faleomavaige, a Democrat -- is being organized by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. During the visit, the three congressmen as well as four members representing the Heritage Foundation will meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Premier Yu Shyi-kun and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰). The delegation will be honored at a luncheon hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新). In addition to attending a briefing by the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan, the group will visit the National Palace Museum. The delegation is scheduled to leave Taiwan on Wednesday.
■ Diplomacy
Italy to send representative
Italy will send another diplomat in the middle of this month to serve as its deputy representative to Taiwan, it was learned on Friday. Sources said the move indicates that Italy attaches great importance to its relations with Taiwan. Italy first sent a representative to Taiwan in 1994, and established the Italian Economic, Trade and Cultural Promotion Office in Taiwan the following year to handle Taiwan-Italy relations. Alberto Galluccio assumed the post of director of the office in 2000, becoming the third person to hold the job. The sources said that the Italian Foreign Ministry granted the members of Taiwan's representative office in Italy diplomatic IDs in February last year. Italy also granted a visa for Vice President Annette Lu for her transit in Europe, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) visited Italy in June, they said. Galluccio played a role in all of these moves, they added.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
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