**Tai-Ex opening **

The Tai-Ex opened up 151-points this morning from yesterday's close, at

13,727 on turnover of $4-billion N-T.

The market made a strong comeback on Tuesday, as a rally on Wall Street

overnight and expectations the U-S Federal Reserve will ease the pace of its

rate hike cycle both sparked heated buying.

Investors rushed to pick up large-cap tech stocks with a focus on

semiconductors, which drove the local board higher throughout the session.

**Indonesians Stuck on Cargo Ship in Kaohsiung to Allowed to Disembark **

The Maritime and Port Bureau says eight Indonesian crewmen on a cargo ship

that has been docked in Kaohsiung Port since February will be allowed to

leave the vessel once a relief crew arrives in Taiwan.

According to the bureau, nine Burmese sailors will relieve (換班) the

Indonesian crewmen, who have been stuck on the vessel for over seven months.

The Ministry of Transport says the Burmese nationals are currently having

their visas processed by Taiwan's representative office in Myanmar and are

expected to arrive in Taiwan soon.

However, the ministry has not given an approximate date for their arrival.

The Indonesian crewmen have been on the Togo-registered "Jian Ye" since it

was towed into Kaohsiung Port in February after the vessel lost power near

Taiwan's territorial waters.

**Passport Applications Surge **

The Bureau of Consular Affairs says the number of passport applications and

renewals has soared (飆升) since the government announced that quarantine

regulations for arrivals would be lifted on October 13.

According to the bureau, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, it processed an

average of 1.7 million passport applications per year.

However, that number has fallen to 300,000 a year - with the lowest number of

applications and renewals being 233,000 reported in 2021.

The bureau says it processed 386,000 passport applications as of September 30

his year and there's been an average of around 3,000 applications per day.

And the bureau has been seeing an average of 5,300 applications over the past

week.

**Estonia PM on Moscow's Nuclear Threat **

Estonia's prime minister says the West mustn't give in to Moscow's nuclear

threats or premature (過早的) peace proposals but stand firmly in support of

Ukraine as the invaded country fights to rid its occupied territories of

Russian soldiers.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told The Associated Press in an interview that

``very dangerous'' calls for negotiations and peace in Ukraine have come from

``very prominent people.''

She didn't specify anyone by name, but her comments followed Tesla CEO Elon

Musk tweeting a contentious proposal for ending the war.

Kallas says Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to defend Russian

territory ``with any means at our disposal'' must be taken seriously but not

lead to attempts at appeasement.

**SKorea Missile Malfunctions During Drill **

South Korea says one of its missiles malfunctioned (故障) and fell during a

drill.

AP correspondent Norman Hall reports.

**Bangladesh Power Out **

A failure in Bangladesh's power grid plunged much of the country into a

blackout.

The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board said power transmission

(輸電系統) had failed in the eastern part of the country, cutting electricity

in Dhaka and other big cities.

Officials said restoring power could take hours.

Bangladesh has seen several power shortages since the government suspended

operations of all diesel-run power plants to reduce costs for imports as

prices have soared.

That was the I.C.R.T. news,

Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded

every day in the afternoon.

Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____.

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