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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Travel
Passports to improve service
Taiwanese living and traveling abroad who hold the new passport will enjoy better service from the nation's representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) said in a written report submitted to the Legislative Yuan yesterday. Chien said his ministry has required its overseas offices to enhance service and assistance to those people holding the new passport in the face of robust pressure from Beijing, which has demanded that other countries deny entry or departure to travelers holding the new passport, which has the word "Taiwan" on the cover. The word was added to help customs authorities better distinguish Republic of China passports from those of the PRC, a move which Chien said was in no way political. Passport applications increased by 21 percent during the period from its issuance day on Sept. 1 to Sept. 25 over the year-earlier level, an indication that the response to the new passport has been positive, Chien said in the report.

■ Health
Mosquito battle launched
Kaohsiung County officials in charge of public health and environmental protection are taking steps to clean up the breeding grounds of mosquitoes in four villages after a case of dengue fever was reported in a district in Kaohsiung City. Hsieh Mei-chun, an official of the county's Public Health Bureau said yesterday that more than 50 workers have begun to clean up mosquito-breeding grounds in the villages of Tashe, Jenwu, Chiaotou and Tzeguang. Residents have been asked to clean up their gardens and yards to help prevent any outbreak of the disease. There was an epidemic of dengue fever in Kaohsiung County last year.

■ Crime
Illegal prostitute numbers up
The number of Chinese prostitutes has soared this year although the overall number of women entering from abroad to engage in the sex trade declined, the National Police Administration reported yesterday. According to police tallies, the number of Chinese prostitutes who entered Taiwan via human-trafficking rings between January and August this year jumped by 22 percent, or 327 persons, accounting for 40.42 percent of the 1,544 foreign women arrested for soliciting in the first eight months of the year. In the same period last year, the number of Chinese prostitutes made up only 18.5 percent of all foreign prostitutes arrested by police, officials noted. A total of 1,544 foreign women were found by police to have entered the country illegally to engage in prostitution in the first eight months of this year, 59 fewer than the 1,603 recorded in the same period last year.

■ Diplomacy
Lu urges help for Malawi
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday that she will launch a campaign to sponsor Malawian children so that they will get better care. She made the remarks when she hosted a luncheon in Taoyuan County in honor of Malawian President Bakili Muluzi and his entourage. Lu lauded Muluzi for devoting himself to his country's democracy and progress during his 10 years in office. She said that Muluzi has been a close friend of Taiwan, noting that he has instructed his nation's ambassador to the UN each year to speak out for the Republic of China's cause when the UN holds its annual general assembly. Such steadfast support is touching, she said.

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