■Missing persons
AIT issues search appeal
An American by name of Fryderyk M. Frontier went missing in late May, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday as it issued an appeal to the public to help locate his whereabouts. Frontier arrived in Taiwan on May 20 and reported to a Hess Language School in Chung-ho the next day. This was the last time he was seen, the AIT statement said. However, on May 22, Frontier called a friend in the US and said he planned to go to a national park for a three-day visit before returning to Taipei, the statement said. He has not been heard from since. "Records show that on May 23 he purchased a train ticket to Pingtung. He had expressed an interest in going hiking and in visiting Kaohsiung," the statement said. Anyone with information about Frontier is encouraged to contact the local police or the AIT at aitamict@mail.ait.org.tw.
■ Politics
Former speaker convicted
PFP Legislator Liu Sung-pan (劉松藩), a former speaker of the Legislative Yuan, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison and a fine of NT$30 million (US$864,550) because of his alleged role in helping a friend getting an illegal loan from a bank. The Taichung District Court determined in its judgment that Liu provided a front company to a friend and helped him get a loan of NT$1.5 billion from the Taichung Commercial Bank in 1998. Liu took a commission of NT$150 million (US$4.32 million) from the friend in return, according to the court. The case came to light when Liu's friend failed to repay the loan. Liu said through one of his staff that he was surprised by the sentence and would appeal it.
■ Education
Winning team returns home
A team of students from the department of computer science and industrial engineering of National Taiwan University returned to Taipei yesterday after winning an international computer-software design competition last month in Washington. The team was led by the department chief Feipei Lai (賴飛羆) and was composed of Kuo Mei-chen (郭美辰), Huang Pao-shuan (黃寶萱), Cheng Hsien-ting (鄭先廷) and Lin Puo-yun (林伯均). The team won the top prize given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) at the 2003 Computer Society International Design Competition after beating more than 300 competitors in about 170 teams from universities around the world. The team's design -- Novel Educative Wireless -- which helps teachers create a small-class digital-learning interaction with students through the use of a Tablet PC wireless system. The device also won the first "multimedia" prize offered by Microsoft Corp.
■ Cross-strait ties
Ferry sent for ill woman
The Mainland Affairs Council allowed a ferry to sail directly from Kinmen to Fujian Province yesterday to retrieve a seriously ill Taiwanese businesswoman. Direct shipping services between Kinmen and Matsu and Xiamen and Mawei were suspended May 18 over SARS concerns. The council resumed direct Kinmen-Xiamen and Matsu-Mawei cargo services late last month, but direct passenger services have not yet been resumed. Based on humanitarian considerations, the council approved an application by the Kinmen County Government to send a ferry to Xiamen to pick up Chen Chin-lien (陳金蓮), who has cervical cancer and requires emergency surgery, as well as her husband and other family members.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods