Taiwan Quick Take

■ Diplomacy
Latin contacts stepped up
Major events with Latin America will regain momentum now that SARS outbreaks have stopped in Taiwan, an official said yesterday. Javier Ho (侯清山), director of the Central and South American Affairs Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said some exchange programs with Latin American allies were postponed due to the SARS outbreak. With the occurrence of the disease diminishing in recent weeks, Ho said diplomatic events with the region will be re-activated. Among others, he said, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) will head a delegation to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Aug. 8 to attend an annual meeting of foreign ministers of the Taiwan and its four diplomatic allies in the East Caribbean. Meanwhile, Ho said, a summit meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his counterparts from Central American countries will take place in Taipei on Aug. 21 as scheduled. In addition El Salvador President Francisco Flores and Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo will visit Taipei later this year, he said.

■ Crime
Men arrested for fraud
Two Taiwanese men have been arrested in Davao, The Philippines for using fake credit cards in purchasing mobile telephones, a police report said yesterday. The report said Yang Chih-Chieh, 33, and Chen Chue-Yu, 30, were arrested Sunday after a store owner filed a complaint against them. "The store owner said the duo attempted to use fake credit cards to purchase three mobile telephones worth a total of 80,000 pesos (US$1,538)," it said. The store owner, however, found out that the cards were counterfeit during verification and immediately called the police for assistance. The suspects were still at the store when police arrived. At the police station, two other store owners filed complaints against the suspects for allegedly using fake credit cards in purchasing six mobile phones worth 104,090 pesos on June 18. One complainant said the suspects had already left his store when he learned that the credit cards were fake.

■ Marriage
Quarter of brides are foreign
More a quarter of the 173,000 women who married in Taiwan last year were from overseas, with 98 percent coming from China and Southeast Asian countries, Ministry of the Interior statistics showed yesterday. Nearly 45,000 foreign brides married Taiwanese men last year, including 28,000 from China. In terms of age, brides from Southeast Asian countries were 22 years old on average. In contrast, the average age of Chinese brides was higher than Taiwanese brides. The average age for a woman in Taiwan to marry was 28 last year, compared with a little more than 30 for Chinese brides.

■ Health
Breeders threaten lawsuit
Civet-cat in Taiwan are threatening to sue Hong Kong University SARS researchers for US$10 million over a study linking the animal to the virus that causes SARS. The breeders claim the report damaged business and have hired a lawyer to file a lawsuit against the University of Hong Kong. The university published the results of the research last month claiming that the civet cat could be the source of the coronavirus after successfully isolating it in breeds of the masked palm civet.