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Taiwan quick take

■Surveys
Chen loses support
According to a survey in the Chinese-language Commonwealth magazine, 50 percent of Taiwanese people hold a pessimistic attitude about their future. The survey shows 50 percent consider President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration as poor. Only 10 percent regard Chen's administration as good, according to the survey. Only 2.4 percent of people are satisfied with this year's economic performance, whereas 62.3 percent of people are dissatisfied with politics, the study said. The survey shows 34.5 percent of people have one or more unemployed family members. The gap between the rich and the poor has also become wider over the past year. However, the survey reveals the public believes conflicts between ethnic groups are not as serious as before. Only 24 percent of people are still concerned about conflicts between ethnic groups, compared with last year's 37.5 percent.

■ Crime
French kiss yields jail term
A Thai worker has been sentenced to three years in prison for forcing a French kiss on a junior high school girl, a court official said yesterday. Kotiram Nawapol, 25, forced the kiss on a 13-year-old girl on Aug. 16 shortly after meeting her in a park in Hsinkang in central Changhua County, despite the girl's attempt to push him away, the official from the district court said. Nawapol, who had been working in a Taiwanese factory for almost two years, was originally accused by prosecutors of obstructing personal freedom. In his ruling on Wednesday, however, Judge Hung Chih-hsien applied a heavier "molestation" charge. "The defendant forced his tongue into the girl's mouth for three to four seconds, which is generally known as French-kissing and is an act of foreplay seen very often in pornographic films," the verdict stated. "To most people in this country, the act is not only sufficient to arouse or satiate sexual desire, but it will also incite a feeling of disgust and shame [in the victim]," it said. The Thai worker can appeal the case to a higher court.

■ Transportation
Korean charter flight arrives
A Korean Air chartered plane carrying 144 passengers landed at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport yesterday, the first time a Korean passenger plane had arrived since air links with South Korea were suspended after Seoul switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1992. Korean Air began operating the Seoul-Taipei route yesterday, with three round-trip flights per week on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The service will end Feb. 21. The last Korean Air plane to arrive here was a relief plane sent after the Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake. Taiwan's TransAsia Airways started running charters on the Taipei-Yangyang route Dec. 22 with four round-trip flights per week. The service will end on Feb. 18.

■ Diplomacy
Colombian official to visit
Enrique Gomez Hurtado, president of the Second Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of the Republic of Colombia, accompanied by his wife, will arrive in Taipei tomorrow as head of a four-member delegation here for a six-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release yesterday. The delegation is slated to visit Chiang Pin-Kuan (江丙坤), vice speaker of the Legislative Yuan, and attend a dinner hosted by Francisco Hwang (黃瀧元), the vice minister of Foreign Affairs, the statement said.
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