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Taiwan Quick Take

■ CRIME
Fugitive couple return
A fugitive couple wanted by the authorities were brought back from Japan to Taiwan yesterday evening, Taiwan's representative office in Japan said. Officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan were referring to Chao Ching (趙晴), 51, and her husband, Tang Feng (譚鋒), 46. The two are wanted for their suspected involvement in swindling numerous people out of a total of NT$15 million (US$447,760). They are wanted by the Kaohsiung District Court on charges of fraud filed in 1994. The officials said Japanese immigration officials notified them on Nov. 22 that the couple had arrived at Narita International Airport from Los Angeles using Taiwanese passports, which were later found to be forged, and were scheduled to fly to Seoul the following day. They contacted Japanese authorities and obtained their consent to deport the couple and leave them at the disposal of the representative office.

■ SOCIETY
Domestic violence targeted
The Taiwan Alliance Against Domestic Violence joined forces with several legislators yesterday to call for an increase in the budget related to domestic violence issues. Since the Domestic Violence Law (家暴法) was passed, the government has not increased funds for tackling domestic violence, the alliance said. The alliance suggested that an amount of NT$3 billion (US$89.27 million) for a period of 10 years -- NT$300 million per year -- be set aside to be used for causes such as the training of social workers who would deal directly with problems related to domestic violence. Currently the funds put forth for dealing with domestic violence amount to NT$145 million, a mere 2 percent of the social-welfare budget.

■ SOCIETY
More born out of wedlock
The rate of children born out of wedlock has surpassed 4 percent for the first time, according to statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior. The figures show that based on household registry records, 6,832 such children were born in the first 10 months of the year, accounting for 4.04 percent of all births in the period and representing a 0.63 percent rise from the same period last year. Hualien County ranked first with 11 percent of births out of wedlock, followed by Taitung County with 10.4 percent and Keelung with 5.8 percent. The ministry did not provide any reason for the rise. Altogether there were 169,040 births during the first 10 months of the year, down 3.8 percent from the same period last year.

■ MEDIA
Chinese students to visit
Graduate students from China majoring in mass communications will be able to join local news media organizations as interns next year, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Vice Chairman Huang Wei-feng (黃偉峰) said a foundation set up by the council to promote cross-strait civilian exchanges has worked out a pilot plan, while a real-estate tycoon has promised to donate NT$1 million (US$29,8800). He said the foundation will subsidize the mass communications departments of Shih Hsin University and Ming Chuan University to handle the project. Initially, between four and 10 graduate students from each Chinese university will be able to come to Taiwan. Huang said the internships will not involve course credits. The aim is to help the students learn about Taiwan's news environment first-hand and to promote cross-strait exchanges and understanding, he added.

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