■ CRIME
Taiwanese jailed in Vietnam
A Vietnamese court has sentenced a Taiwanese man to 10 years in jail for smuggling more than US$1.3 million in diamonds into the country, state media said yesterday. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Chen Hsin-hsiung, 45, on Tuesday for illegally importing 15,182 diamonds and selling more than 9,000 for more than US$1.3 million, the Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Police) daily reported. Chen was arrested in September 2004 when customs officials at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City discovered the undeclared diamonds in his luggage. He had arrived on a flight from Taiwan. Police later raided his house and jewelry store in central Ho Chi Minh City, seizing more than 1,900 diamonds and about 150 pieces of jewelry, which the judge ruled would be forfeited to the state.
■ CRIME
NPA raids fake sock warehose
The National Police Agency's intellectual property rights division said yesterday it had cracked down on a counterfeit ring that was producing fake big-name sports socks for online purchase. The police raided a warehouse in Shulin (樹林), Taipei County, on Monday, where they discovered nearly 1,000 pairs of counterfeit Nike, Adidas, Puma and Levi's sports socks. They arrested a man surnamed Lai, the suspected ringleader. The police referred Lai to the Banciao District Prosecutors' Office for further questioning. Lai is suspected of selling the counterfeit sports socks on the Internet and delivering them to online customers by mail, police said. His products were described as being as good as the originals, with identical labels and all the latest styles available.
■ TOURISM
Visitor statistics released
Thirty-four tourist spots have attracted more than 18 million local and foreign tourists from January to June, statistics from the Taipei City Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics showed yesterday. National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall was the most popular tourist spot in the city, attracting more than 6 million people during the period, followed by National Palace Museum and Taipei Zoo, with about 1.6 million. The department said that the number of visitors to the city had increased 9.8 percent from last year, with about 100,000 tourists visiting the attractions daily. Longshan Temple attracted about 8,000 people every day, while the Taipei 101 observatory deck received 3,000.
■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA fines three companies
Six companies were recently fined by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for excessive water use, an EPA official said yesterday. The three companies -- Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Formosa Chemicals and Fiber Corp (台塑石化) and Nan Chung Petrochemical Corp (南中石化) -- used excessive water to the tune of 10.1 percent, 4.7 percent and 20 percent respectively, a survey conducted by the EPA between July 3 and July 15 showed, the official said. The EPA fined them for failing to comply with the guidelines on water usage stipulated in an environmental impact assessment made by the EPA to demand that companies conserve water, the official said. Formosa Plastics was fined NT$1 million (US$30,500), while Formosa Chemicals and Fiber was fined NT$850,000 and Nan Chung Petrochemical NT$650,000, the official said. EPA will conduct another survey before Dec. 31 to ensure the companies are complying with the guidelines.
■ HEALTH
Thousands fail to get tested
During the past three years, approximately 33 percent of women over 30 in Taipei -- about 250,000 -- have failed to take a cervical smear test despite an increasing number of women taking such tests, a city health department official said yesterday. Starting in 1995, the government began to provide free annual tests under the National Health Insurance program for women aged 30 and above. Chao Kuan-chung (趙灌中), a medical doctor at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said the test can help identify cervical cancer in its early stages, thus improving the effectiveness of patient treatment. The disease is curable if found in early stages, Chao said, urging women to undergo regular Pap smears.
■ CRIME
Principal's obituary forged
Police are searching for a person who distributed an obituary for a university principal who is still alive, a newspaper said yesterday. Hsia Cheng-hua (夏誠華), principal of Hsuan Chuang University in Hsinchu, began to receive telephone calls last week from friends who had learned that he had "died." The callers said they had seen Hsia's obituary, which said the 53-year-old had been "called by the Lord." United Daily News reported that when Hsia died, his six children were at his side. But the names of Hsia's children in the obituary were the names of staff members at the university. Although Hsia scrambled to correct the rumor, some people sent wreaths to the funeral parlor where the funeral was said to be taking place. Hsinchu police are hunting for the person who distributed the obituary, and planned to charge him or her with falsifying documents.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all