On the day the ferry Sewol sank, President Park Geun-hye began work at 9 a.m. at her home office due to her poor physical condition, and received reports via telephone, fax or documents delivered by hand. She spoke with her national security adviser on the phone for a total of seven times about the ferry accident, according to a 19-page document submitted by her lawyers for her impeachment trial Tuesday.

However, the document detailing the president’s actions on April 16, 2014 was dismissed by the Constitutional Court as “insufficient,” during the third hearing of her impeachment trial.

Park’s alleged seven-hour absence and negligence of duty to save people’s lives during the maritime disaster, which left more than 300 people dead or missing, is one of the key reasons behind her impeachment on Dec. 9 by the parliament.

The document features a timeline for the reports she received from her aides via documents or telephone and her instructions during the ferry disaster.

But the Constitutional Court took issue with the explanation, saying it falls short of details on what Park was doing as she was being briefed during the sinking of the ferry, as well as when and how she first learned about the accident.

“We asked President Park to reveal what she did on the day, but the document appears to be insufficient (in explaining it). It only includes what orders she gave and what reports she received,” the court said, asking Park to “recall” her memories in order to clarify her actions while the ferry was capsizing. It asked her lawyers to supplement the document and submit it again.

Park’s lawyers claimed that Park took proper measures via telephone to handle the maritime accident, but they did not provide Park’s records of phone calls during the accident.

“The document said that the president made numerous phone calls with presidential aides, but only a written report sent to the president is attached,” said the court, asking Park’s lawyers to hand in the president’s phone records.

In the third formal hearing to review the legitimacy of Park’s impeachment, three key witnesses — Park’s longtime friend Choi Soon-sil as well as ex-presidential aides Jeong Ho-seong and An Chong-bum — were scheduled to testify before the court.

But they all refused to appear, citing the hearing’s possible impact on their own criminal trials.

In what appears to be a warning to the witnesses who have refused to testify before the justices, the court said it will forcibly bring in the witnesses if they fail to show up again at the upcoming hearings.

The court sternly renewed calls for co-operation from both the National Assembly’s impeachment committee and Park’s lawyers in submitting relevant documents and evidence in an apparent attempt to quicken court proceedings.

According to Park’s defence paper, submitted 19 days after the court’s request, Park was first briefed by presidential aides at 10 a.m., one hour after the ferry started to capsize off the nation’s southwest coast.

Park worked from her residence at the presidential office, as she did not feel well that day and had no official schedule, the document said. She reviewed reports and was briefed about state affairs via email, fax and post.

She then learned at around 2:50 p.m. from Kim Jang-soo — who was then national security secretary — that the news reports about 370 passengers being rescued from the sinking ferry were incorrect. The president decided to visit the central disaster headquarters at around 3 p.m. and made her first public appearance that day at 5:15 p.m.

Only a nursing officer and hair stylist visited her residence while the ferry was sinking, according to the document.

The National Assembly’s impeachment committee denounced the document as “insufficient,” saying that it is a tactic to delay the court proceedings.

It said that her seven-hour absence during the ferry disaster was the primary reason why Koreans lost trust in her and described it as “a collapse of the nation’s crises management system.”

In the next hearing scheduled for Thursday, those who will be questioned include presidential office administrative staff Lee Young-sun, who took charge of Park’s personal affairs, as well as a former CEO of Segye Daily, who was allegedly laid off due to pressure from the presidential office.

Park’s confidante Choi, who is at the centre of the corruption scandal, as well as ex-presidential aide An will be called in to testify again Monday.

A topnotch online English teacher could earn 20 million yuan ($2.89 million) a year amid the heated online education market in China, China Youth Daily reported.

Online English teacher Zhu Wei sells his live streaming course, which includes nine two-hour lessons, at a price of 799 yuan on an online education platform.

The course was sold 2,330 times in 2015, earning 1.86 million yuan in total, of which about 1.78 million yuan belongs to Zhu and his team.

Zhu’s team developed five such courses in 2015 and earned about 11 million yuan, plus royalties on published English textbooks, with him being the author, and other offline teaching earnings.

“A teacher’s income is expected to exceed 20 million yuan,” said Zhu, “I could not believe it until I myself achieved that goal.”

In comparison, a teacher at an elite public school in Shanghai earns 10,000 yuan a month and a teacher at a private education institution earns 30,000 yuan a month.

Before Zhu entered the online education market, he was an instructor for 10 years at the New Oriental Education and Technology Group, a leading private educational service, and was previously an English teacher at a public school.

The internet can turn a teacher into a superstar, helping young teachers compete with senior teachers at the same starting line, said another online teacher Su Nannan.

Su started teaching English in 2000 and opened an online course in 2014.

His first class, designed for around 2,000 students, was promoted on the home page of the online learning service provider hujiang.com, and unexpectedly attracted the maximum number – 9,000 students.

After the class, Su set up a group chat on Tencent’s QQ, with a cap of 500 people, to answer students’ questions.

But even three days after the class, there were too many people wanting in the group so he had to set up another three 1,000-people group chats.

“I never thought I could make connections with so many students after one class,” said Su, adding that some students asked about knowledge points while others talked about their bitterness of learning English.

“It is hard for teachers and students to have such a broad and in-depth discussion in an offline class,” said Su, “I felt that I was needed by so many students for the first time in my 14 years of teaching, and my heart was trembling.”

“You are unable to cheat in your teaching ability. Only when you have a tank of water, can you pour a bowl of water to your students,” said Kong Wei, vice-president of the real-time interaction education platform CCtalk under hujiang.com.

“Customers do not recognise massive-produced courses, and that’s why a popular online teacher becomes more popular,” Kong added.

CC online teacher school focuses on training online teachers.

The school’s vice president Xu Jun often analyzes the characteristics of popular online teachers and helps other online teachers acquire similar characteristics.

One of his case studies is a teacher named Chen Zhiyuan, who developed his followers from zero to 104,000 within one year.

Xu praises Chen for being both a good English teacher and a marketing genius.

Chen opened courses on big platforms first, and gave public lectures to attract more followers, and then turned his followers into his WeChat friends to provide person-to-person consulting services.

“Not everyone has the patience to do person-to-person consulting, but he gathered many customers this way,” said Xu, adding that Chen’s most noticeable character trait is the emotional interaction between him and his customers.

“Many teachers are great but are unable to present charisma online,” said Xu.

“While a popular online teacher not only teaches well, but also has good looks, high emotional intelligence and knows his customers well.”

Taipei – China’s only aircraft carrier has entered the Taiwan Strait, the island’s defence ministry said Wednesday (Jan 11), seen as a show of strength by Beijing as tensions rise between the two sides.

The Liaoning has not entered Taiwanese waters but has gone into an area covered by its air defence zone, according to the ministry.

Taiwanese media said the island’s military had dispatched F-16 fighter jets and other aircraft Tuesday night to monitor the Chinese carrier group. The defence ministry would not confirm those reports.

“The military is monitoring the whole situation and will act as necessary. We urge Taiwan’s people to be at ease,” the defense ministry said in the statement.

It comes just after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen visited the United States at the weekend on a transit to Central America, despite protests from Beijing.

China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province to be brought back within its fold, was incensed by an unprecedented call between Tsai and Donald Trump last month and has since stepped up military drills near the island.

Although they do not have official relations, the United States is Taiwan’s most powerful ally and main arms supplier.

The Liaoning has been carrying out its first exercise in the Pacific and already passed south of Taiwan last month.

It entered the southwest of Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) at 07:00 Wednesday local time (23:00 GMT), the defence ministry said, along with escort vessels.

“(It) is sailing west of the midline of the Taiwan Strait, moving north,” the ministry said in a statement.

Experts have said the showing of the second-hand, Soviet-built Liaoning is “symbolic” rather than a pose of any real threat compared with the military might of the US.

Tsai stopped in Houston Saturday and met with Republican Senator Ted Cruz during her stay, which was slammed by Beijing as an attempt to “undermine China-US relations.” She is this week visiting Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador – among the dwindling number of states that have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

While the focus of her visit is to bolster ties with allies, her US stopovers are being closely watched with speculation she may make contact with US President-elect Trump and his team.