■ Education
Mandarin proving popular
The number of foreign students seeking education in Taiwan soared by 23 percent to 14,479 last year, mainly as a result of a global trend toward learning Mandarin, the Ministry of Education reported yesterday. Of last year's foreign intake, a total of 9,135 students studied Mandarin, an increase of 953 over the year-earlier level, ministry officials said. Japanese dominated the ranks of Mandarin-learning foreign students, with a total of 1,807 students, followed by Indonesians with 1,279, Americans with 1,252, South Koreans with 1,039 and Vietnamese with 402, the officials said.
■ Animal Care
Stray dog captured
A stray dog nicknamed "209" which had lived on an interchange island on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway for nearly two years was caught by volunteers from the Kaohsiung Concern Stray Animal Association yesterday. It took nine volunteers five hours and three attempts to tranquilize the animal. The volunteers risked their lives to get to the traffic island. Association chairwoman Wang Chun-chin (王春金) said many people had offered to adopt "209" as a result of media reports about the dog. The association will put the dog up for adoption after it has recovered from its ordeal, Wang said. Chang Tung-liang (張棟樑), a captain of the freeway patrol, said later yesterday that the volunteers faced fines ranging between NT$3,000 and NT$6,000 because they had not sought police approval before venturing onto the freeway on foot.
■ Society
Yang Chuan-kwang buried
Taiwan's first Olympic medalist, Yang Chuan-kwang (楊傳廣), who died of a brain hemorrhage on Jan. 28 in his Ventura County, California, home at the age of 73, was buried at Ivy Lawns Memorial Park in Ventura on Saturday after a brief funeral. Officials from Taiwan's National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles and the Democratic Progressive Party's Western America Chapter attended the funeral and sang the Republic of China's national anthem. Yang won a silver medal in the decathlon at the Rome Olympics in 1960. Rafer Johnson, a US athlete who trained with Yang and won the gold medal in the decathlon in Rome also attended the funeral and recalled his five-decade friendship with Yang.
■ Politics
Yu urges DPP debate
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that the party should hold open debates among its members ON whether a "one China" framework exists in the Constitution. Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said last year that such a framework does exist, a comment that drew criticism from within the party. In an radio interview yesterday, Yu said national identity is a matter on the constitutional level and should not be blurred by "playing with words." Saying such a framework exists is wrong because the framework does not reflect a Taiwan-centered value, he said, adding that such a framework will also prevent the nation from becoming a normal country. He added that the party should also hold debate on the "four nos" proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in his inauguration speech, but he did not elaborate. Yu added in the interview that he is in favor of changing the Constitution's general guidelines, which stipulate the nation's title, territory and flag.
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