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Taiwan Quick Take

■ TRANSPORT
Ministry lauds new flights
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday welcomed TransAsia Airways' plans for charter flight services between Taipei and Vladivostok, Russia. The TransAsia flights were to start today. Chen Chun-hsien (陳俊賢), director-general of the ministry's Department of West Asian Affairs, said Russia may sound like a distant country, but the public can get a taste of Russia's Far East by hopping on a three-and-a-half hour flight to Vladivostok. He also said Taiwan currently only has a representative office in Moscow, which makes it difficult at times to provide timely assistance to Taiwanese fishing boats and tourists who encounter difficulties in Russia's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean. The ministry has therefore negotiated with Russia for several years on setting up a representative office in Vladivostok, he said. The two sides have reached a consensus on the office, he said, adding that red tape in Russia made it impossible to say when the office would open.

■ SOCIETY
Youth conference under way
The 2007 Youth National Affairs Conference is to be held next month under the auspices of the National Youth Commission and an advisory council composed of 50 youngsters who have participated in previous annual conferences. Commission Chairwoman Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said that all volunteer members of the advisory council were working hard at organizing the conference. Saying that the advisory council was likely to become a "youth assembly" in future, she added that the council, at the invitation of the EU, would visit Europe in October to promote exchanges. Cheng described the conference as an exercise in deliberative democracy.

■ CULTURE
Vienna opera offers Mozart
Austria's Vienna State Opera, one of the best-known opera houses in the world, is scheduled to debut here in September. Led by Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, the 130-member visiting group plans three performances of Le nozze di Figaro, one of Mozart's most popular operas, in Taiwan. The opera has been booked to perform in Taipei on Sept. 22 and Sept. 23 and in Kaohsiung on Sept. 24. The performances will be in the form of a concert rather than an opera, as the performers will neither be acting nor wearing costumes, said Niu Hsiao-hua (牛效華) of the Management of New Arts, the main organizer of the event.

■ TRAFFIC
Bad driving increasing
The number of serious driving offenses on Taiwan's fastest roads has risen, in spite of a strict law enforcement program that saw more than NT$200 million (US$6.07 million) in fines imposed on aggressive drivers during the first six months of the year. Officials from the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau and the National Highway Police Bureau disclosed on Monday that police had, in the first half of the year, handled 190,526 traffic violations on expressways, of which 68,476 were serious offenses. The police bureau said serious offenses included drunken driving, weaving through traffic to save time, passing on the shoulder, driving at speeds at least 40km over the posted limit, heavy vehicles driving in the fast lanes and drivers of large vehicles intimidating smaller vehicles into changing lanes by tailgating. Chan Tze-ching (陳子政), head of the police bureau, said highway police would continue cracking down on offenders.


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