A biodiversity researcher has found a huge basalt rock formation in the Taiwan Strait, resembling a city wall and rivalling similar monoliths on land.
The 200 metre-long, 10 metre-high undersea wall, which looks like thousands of pillars packed together, is near the Pescadores archipaelago, researcher Jeng Ming-Hsiou said yesterday.
Jeng, who is a professor at the state-run Academia Sinica in Taipei, was diving in the area when he saw and filmed the wall, about 40 kilometres west of Taiwan's main island.
"It was completely unexpected," said Prof. Jeng. "It's not easy to see these formations underwater."
Basalt walls such as the famed Giant's Causeway on the coast of Ireland and the Wairere Boulders of New Zealand are known to have occured on land but seldom, if ever, found at sea.
The Taiwan Strait formation, which local media have compared to a city wall, likely began with a volcanic eruption as far back as 1,800 years ago, Prof. Jeng said.
Jobless in Japan march to demand jobs, housing
Hundreds of jobless Japanese marched around Parliament yesterday demanding work and housing as lawmakers began discussing measures to combat a worsening recession. Many of the protesters were former contract workers who had spent the New Year's holiday in tents set up by volunteers in a nearby park, having been kicked out of company housing after being laid off.
"Stop firing temporary workers," they shouted, marching with banners and posters.
"The toughest part is that we don't have a job," said Tsuguo Kaneko, 45, a former contract worker for a baby food manufacturing company who had stayed in the park.
Tents in the park came down on Monday but Labour Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said the ministry had secured new shelters where the 500 jobless who had stayed there could move.
Bhutto's daughter sings of pain in hip-hop tribute
The elder daughter of Pakistan's assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has written a rap song expressing her anguish over her mother's death. The song, entitled I Would Take the Pain Away, and a five-minute video of clips and photographs of Benazir Bhutto has been broadcast on the state-run Pakistani television and posted on the video-sharing website YouTube.
"My mother was murdered. I don't even comprehend. Was it worth dying for? I'm walking through screened doors," Ms Bakhtawar, 18, sings in English on the lilting hip-hop song.
"No comfort or ease. I'm begging you please God bless the deceased," she sings.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman, for years an aide to Mrs Bhutto, said Ms Bakhtawar, a student at Britain's Edinburgh University, wrote the lyrics and music.
Ace figure skater jailed over drunk-driving death
Bulgarian former world ice dance champion Maxim Staviski was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after a drunk-driving crash that killed a man and left a young woman in coma, an appeals court decided yesterday.
A year ago, Mr Staviski, 31, was given a suspended two-and-a-half year jail sentence but prosecutors appealed saying there were no mitigating circumstances.
Russian-born Staviski was charged in 2007 over the death of the 24-year-old amateur boxer Petar Petrov. He was over the alcohol limit when his Jeep collided with two other vehicles near the Black Sea town of Primorsko.
Mr Staviski and his partner Albena Denkova claimed the Balkan country's first world title in Calgary in 2006 before successfully defending the crown the following year.
Mr Staviski's lawyer said the court's verdict was "unfair" and his client would appeal.
Tighter border slows increase in North Korean defectors
Tighter border controls slashed the growth rate of North Korean defectors arriving in the South by more than half last year, even though the number of defectors rose to a new record.
A government agency said yesterday slightly more than 2,800 North Korean defectors arrived in the South last year, up by 10.4 per cent from a year ago, but that figure compared to a 26 per cent increase in 2007.
China calls the defectors economic refugees and forcibly returns them to North Korea where they face sentences in brutal prison camps.
Aid agencies who help North Koreans seek asylum have told Reuters the North increased its penalties on would-be border crossers after leader Kim Jong-il's suspected stroke in August.