■ POLITICS
TSU challenges singer
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) named its own legislative candidate for Taipei County's Sanchung City to fight it out with a candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The TSU's Deputy Secretary-General Liu Yi-teh (劉一德) was named by the party's Central Executive Committee to run in Sanchung after the DPP decided to ask -- Yu Tian (余天), a 60-year-old singer -- to vie for the seat. Liu will now be pitted against Yu and the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) candidate, Chu Chun-hsiao (朱俊嘵), the incumbent legislator. TSU spokeswoman Chou Mei-li (周美里) deplored the DPP's failure to respond to the TSU's suggestion that the two parties jointly present one candidate after negotiations. Liu said he was surprised that the DPP chose a singer with no past connection to the party to run for the seat. "I liked Yu Tian's singing, but he is totally irrelevant to the legislative election. His contribution to Taiwan's democracy movement is almost nil," Liu said. Liu expressed confidence that, with his 30 years of devotion to Taiwan's democracy movement, he is in a favorable position to compete with Yu in the election scheduled for Jan. 12, next year.
■ POLITICS
Confirmation votes set
Lawmakers scheduled confirmation votes yesterday for President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) nominations for auditor-general of the Ministry of Audit, Judicial Yuan president, Judicial Yuan vice president and members of the Council of Grand Justices for Sept. 14. The new legislative session start on Friday. Caucus whips met yesterday to negotiate the agenda for confirmation matters. They decided to have a plenary session for a question-and-answer meeting with the Ministry of Audit's auditor-general candidate Lin Ching-lung (林慶隆) next Tuesday and a two-day plenary session for a question-and-answer meeting with the candidate for Judicial Yuan president, Lai Ying-jaw (賴英照), and the candidates for grand justices on the following days. The weekly question-and-answer sessions with Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) will begin on Sept. 18, when Chang will brief lawmakers on his administration's policies.
■ Transportation
THSR to increase trains
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSR) announced yesterday that it would increase the number of southbound and northbound daily trains to 91 next Friday. THSR officials also said that passengers can book regular and group tickets for the added trains starting today and new schedules will be available at station information desks on Thursday. The THSR also announced it has cooperated with an international credit card company to provide contactless credit card payment services at the ticketing counter at each station. Passengers can now pay for their tickets using their contactless credit cards.
■ SOCIETY
Kaohsiung loses bid
Kaohsiung lost its bid to host the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit 2009, delegates to this year's summit in Brisbane, Australia, said yesterday. A press release issued by the city quoted Deputy Mayor Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文龍), leader of the five-member delegation, as saying Incheon, South Korea, won the most votes at the end of the four-day Brisbane meeting and so will host the 2009 meet. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said her administration would endeavor to enhance the city's profile by playing host to other international activities. The biannual Asia-Pacific City Summit provides a forum for regional leaders to discuss urban problems.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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