Taipei

One of the four Taiwanese fishing boats hijacked off the coast of Somalia last year was released on Thursday, the government said. ”Under the rescue efforts by related government units and shipowners, Chung Yi 218 had safely set sail from Somali waters and was on its way home,” the Fisheries Administration said.

A female husky dog saved the life of a Taiwanese newborn by snatching him from the toilet after his mother gave birth alone at home and collapsed, a social worker said on Friday. The 24-year-old single mother, identified only as Huang, did not feel well on Sunday and went to the bathroom without realising she was in labour.

A Taiwan household registration office has rejected a women’s application to change her name to Hung Occult God of Wealth President, on the grounds that one’s name cannot contain ”president”. The woman recently applied to change her name to Hung Hsuangong Caishen Zongtong, which means Hung God of Wealth Occult President.

Taiwan may launch a spy satellite in three years to step up its surveillance of military activities of rival China in the face of growing missile threats from Beijing, a newspaper reported on Monday. Costing up to -million, the planned satellite, codenamed ”Follow-On RSS” (remote surveillance satellite) would be able to take images as close as 50cm from any scanned area.

Typhoon Longwang was swirling towards south-east China after pounding Taiwan on Sunday, leaving one dead, one missing and 46 injured while disrupting flights and downing power lines. The typhoon made landfall in the east of the island early on Sunday and left in the afternoon, the Central Weather Bureau said.

A jobless, homesick man from Taiwan gouged out his own eyes, surrounded by families celebrating the mid-autumn festival, a newspaper said on Monday. Chiu Hsin-chih (40) lives in Taoyuan County with his mother, wife and two toddler-age children but has been out of work for a long time, the Apple Daily reported.

Somali pirates have lowered their ransom demand and are ready to free 47 Taiwanese, Chinese, Indonesia, Filipino and Vietnamese crew on three Taiwan fishing boats as soon as the ransom has been paid. The three Taiwan tuna trawlers were seized by Somali pirates at the port of Kismayo on August 16 as they were picking up a fishing licence.

Typhoon Talim lashed Taiwan on Thursday, paralysing air and land traffic, shuttering offices and schools, and leaving at least two dead and 24 injured. By the time Talim made landfall at Ilan in north-eastern Taiwan, it had developed two centres and pounded the island with heavy rain and strong winds.

Powerful winds and torrential rains brought by Typhoon Talim pounded eastern Taiwan on Wednesday as the central weather bureau warned residents across the island against floods. With a radius of 250km, the typhoon was moving west-northwest at a speed of 21kph, packing winds at its centre of up to 184kph.

Taiwan will allow the Beijing Olympic torch to pass through Taiwan if the torch relay route does not imply Taiwan is part of China. ”If the torch comes from China to Taiwan and returns to Hong Kong or Macau, we won’t accept it because that implies Taiwan is part of China,” said a spokesperson for the National Council of Physical Fitness and Sports.

A wrong telephone number dialled by a 12-year-old girl sent Taiwanese security officials scrambling after the ambassador from Swaziland was threatened with death. The girl decided to chastise a friend for missing a date and, against the grain in Chinese-speaking Taiwan, she chose the English language to do it.

A Taiwanese man is breathing easier on Monday after a surgeon removed a missing set of dentures from one of his bronchial tubes — three years after he lost them in a fall. Surgeon Chen Chun-lei said the unidentified man visited his clinic several days ago complaining of shortness of breath and a high fever.

Michael Tsai points to a large map on the wall of his office in Taiwan’s national defence ministry. It is dotted with red symbols representing dozens of Chinese missile, air and naval bases within easy shooting range of the capital and other major Taiwanese cities. Whatever Beijing may say about its peaceful intentions, Tsai suggests, this map illustrates the reality of the military threat that lurks 160km to the west.

A fire that engulfed the upper floors of a high-rise building in central Taiwan, killing four people, could have been started by welding equipment being used in a new restaurant, firefighters said on Sunday. The fire on the 22-floor Golden Plaza Tower building in Taichung city blazed for about 80 minutes on Saturday before it was put out.

A Taiwanese businessman has been arrested for allegedly smuggling missile components to Libya, a prosecutor said on Friday. Hsieh Chin-yi, who ran a trade company in northern Taoyuan county, had exported missile parts disguised as general merchandise to Libya since 1999, said Chang Chin-feng, a spokesperson for Taoyuan public prosecutors’ office.

Frenchman Alain ”Spiderman” Robert will climb the world’s tallest building, the 508m Taipei 101, on Saturday as warm-up for the skyscraper’s official opening on December 31, Taipei 101 management said on Thursday. Robert (42) will climb Taipei 101 up to its spire with bare hands but wearing a safety belt.

An independent candidate running for next week’s parliamentary polls in Taiwan stripped to his underwear on Friday as a gimmick to attract attention on television.
Chen Sheng-chun succeeded in getting the much-needed media attention by taking off his suit and giving his political views in front of TV cameras.

A survey of the mental health of Taiwan office workers showed on Wednesday that most of them are unhappy and 40% of them have considered committing suicide.
The ”Unhappy Index” of Taiwan office workers has risen from last year’s 70,77 points to 74,34, according to the survey.

A Taiwan jewellery shop robber turned himself into police after hiding for a month in an apartment building attic, saying he could no longer stand the smell of his own body odour, a news report said on Monday. Authorities told Taiwan’s United Daily News that Wang Wen-long (28) was unemployed and addicted to playing video games.

An apparently mentally deranged man jumped into the lions’ pit at Taipei Zoo on Wednesday to ”talk” to the lions, but was rescued with only a minor bite on his foot. Chen Chung-ho (46) leapt into the pit at about 11am and walked toward a pair of sleeping lions, waving his jacket and talking to the big cats.

They’ve fought with fists. They’ve thrown paper at each other. And on Tuesday, Taiwan’s rowdy lawmakers had an old-fashioned food fight. Legislators began chucking white cardboard takeout lunch boxes full of rice, meat, hard-boiled eggs and vegetables at each other during a heated debate over whether Taiwan should spend billions on weapons sold by the United States.

Elton John warmed up his vocal chords for a concert on Thursday in Taiwan by telling photographers they’re a bunch of ”rude, vile pigs”. The media ambushed the rock star after he arrived by private plane on Thursday shortly after midnight at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek International airport.

Taichung police has ordered the city’s scantily clad betel-nut saleswomen to dress more conservatively to help reduce car accidents, it was reported on Monday. Under the new dress code, women peddling spicy chewing betel nuts at roadside stands are barred from revealing their bodies in sexy transparent clothes.

Nearly 300 people living in remote mountain villages in Taiwan were airlifted to safety on Saturday morning as continued bad weather threatened a fresh wave of mudslides in the district most affected by Typhoon Aere. Hundreds of rescuers continued to search for survivors and evacuate residents from Wufeng Township in the northern Hsinchu county.

A Hong Kong fisherman died and four other fishermen were missing on Monday after two boats capsized off Taiwan in strong winds whipped up by Typhoon Aere, rescuers said. Downpours in the wake of Typhoon Mindulle last month triggered floods and mudslides in central and southern Taiwan in which 29 people were killed.

An earthquake measuring 5,8 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan on Tuesday as the island struggled with the aftermath of massive floods that have claimed at least 23 lives. The tremor shook high-rise buildings as authorities were still coping with the aftermath of weekend floods and mudslides left in the wake of Typhoon Mindulle.

At least seven people died and seven others are missing after Typhoon Mindulle cut a swathe of destruction through central and southern Taiwan, officials said on Saturday. An avalanche of mud and rocks buried a small village in the Nantou region of central Taiwan.

Angry Taiwanese water conservancy authorities on Tuesday chided local thieves for stealing at least 68 sluice gates across the island, saying the act could leave Taiwan vulnerable to the onslaught of an approaching tropical storm. The tropical storm, Conson, is expected by Wednesday to bring torrential rains to southern and eastern Taiwan.

At least six people were killed and four injured in Taiwan on Monday when an explosion ripped through an illegal firecracker factory in the southern region of Chiayi, police said. ”We have found six badly burnt bodies and a number of body parts scattered over the explosion site,” said a police officer.

A powerful earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale hit Taiwan on Sunday, shaking buildings in Taipei, the Seismology Centre said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. Taiwan, lying near the junction of two tectonic plates, is prone to earthquakes.

United States dog-food maker Pedigree began recalling its dry dog food from Taiwan shelves on Monday following the deaths of hundreds of Taiwan puppies from kidney failure. Rumours began circulating on the internet early this year that hundreds of pet dogs in Taiwan had fallen ill after eating Pedigree.