■ Foreign laborersTaoyuan hosts Songkran fest
The annual Thai Songkran festival in which people spray water or throw buckets of water on each other to wash away the misfortune of the past year and usher in the new year will kick off in Taoyuan on Sunday. Taoyuan has the highest number of foreign laborers in the country at more than 70,000. Among them are 30,000 Thai workers. The Thailand Trade and Economic Office said yesterday that there will not only be a traditional Thai food fair, a blessing ceremony and beauty contests, there will also be a Thai "hunk" show and a "transvestite" contest.
■ Religion
Missionaries honored
Three foreign missionaries were granted honorary citizenship of Taichung County yesterday for their devoted service to local underprivileged people over the past decades. Taichung County Magistrate Huang Chung--sheng (黃仲生) presented honorary citizenship to Father James Thomas Manning, 82, Sister Mary Rose Hoffmann, 89, and Reverend Lilly Singer, 65, in appreciation of their decades-long selfless service for disadvantaged groups in the county. Manning arrived in 1951 and established a free medical clinic in addition to his missionary work in remote central mountainous regions. Hoffmann has preached her faith in Taiwan since 1954. The American Catholic nun helped give aid from various churches in the US to the victims of the devastating earthquake in 1999. Singer, a German citizen who arrived in 1964, is highly recognized by her contributions to the underprivileged children around the nation.
■ Judiciary
Soldiers' kids convicted
Sixty-four descendants of Republic of China soldiers left in northern Thailand after the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 were given lenient sentences yesterday for document forgery. The Taipei District Court sentenced Shen Yun-huan (沈雲煥) and 63 co-defendants to four months in prison, with three-year suspensions. If they do not commit any crime in the next three years, they will not be required to serve time in prison. None have ever had ROC ID cards or Thai citizenship. They came to Taiwan between 1988 and 1998 with bogus papers to receive Chinese-language education. The district court said the accused had purchased ID cards of members of Thailand's minority racial groups or deceased Thai citizens. They used those papers to apply for Thai passports.
■ Diplomacy
Thailand rescinds mask order
Thailand said yesterday that tourists arriving from countries affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome are no longer required to wear masks. Tourists arriving from those countries will still be checked upon arrival, said Charal Trinvuthipong, director general of the communicable diseases department. And "if we detect the disease, we will advise them to return home or put them in hospital," he told reporters. But "those who do not have the disease do not have to wear a mask during their stay in Thailand." The mask rule had drawn criticism and ridicule from many who questioned the government's ability to enforce it. Anecdotal evidence showed that most tourists did wear masks at the airport while being checked by medical personnel but took them off later. Last month, the Thai government triggered protest from Taiwan for demaning tourists for SARS-affected countries and areas, including China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan.
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