■ HEALTH
Sliced fruit not clean
The Consumers' Foundation urged the government yesterday to step up measures to check ready-to-eat, sliced fresh fruit sold at markets after tests showed that 84 percent of the products failed to meet safety standards. Foundation chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) said that researchers from the nonprofit group had purchased 25 packs of sliced fruit wrapped either in styrofoam or plastic bags in June. Cheng said the tests showed that none of the products contained artificial sweeteners, bleaching agents, staphylococcus aureus or E. coli. However, 21 of the samples fell short of the Department of Health's hygiene requirements, with an aerobic plate count in excess of 100,000/g.
■ FOOD
Stinky tofu operator fined
Stinky tofu, a delicacy loved by some and detested by others, finally wore out its welcome in a neighborhood. Environmental authorities received the high court's permission on Monday to fine a suburban Taipei restaurant for exceeding the stench limit by three times, a county official said yesterday. After measuring the stench around the Kuang Tou Lao restaurant and receiving 16 complaints since April last year, Taipei County's Environmental Protection Bureau fined the outdoor restaurant NT$100,000 (US$3,000). "The stench level was just too much, and people were unhappy about it," a bureau official said. The owner of Kuang Tou Lao had protested against the fine, calling it too steep for a small business, Huang said. Nevertheless, the owner vowed to reduce the stench.
■ PUBLIC WORKS
Reservoir behind schedule
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) urged the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Monday to ensure that the Tsengwen Reservoir's water diversion project be completed by 2013. Tsengwen is the largest reservoir in Chiayi Country, with an effective storage capacity of 596 million cubic meters. However, its limited catchment area, totaling 481km2, is insufficient to provide enough water to fill the reservoir, CEPD officials said. Although the government has earmarked NT$21.29 billion since 2004 for a project to divert water from the Laonung Stream (荖濃溪), some townships have been reluctant to provide the needed land for the project. Council officials called on the ministry to intensify negotiations with decision-makers in the townships to speed up the project.
■ SOCIETY
Charity donor numbers grow
World Vision Taiwan, a Christian relief organization, said yesterday that its number of local sponsors has reached the 100,000 mark, and that these sponsors had helped more than 130,000 underprivileged children at home and in 29 other countries. World Vision Taiwan was established 43 years ago, but it did not begin to raise funds locally until 1985. The organization told 28-year-old Hsieh Chin-mei (謝錦湄) that she was its 100,000th donor. While considering herself lucky to have been singled out for the honor, Hsieh urged others to join the organization's child sponsorship program by skipping one or two meals a month or by reducing their personal spending. Hsieh joined the child sponsorship program after reading the book, There Is No Me Without You. The book describes how Mrs. Haregewoin Teferra, a middle-class Ethiopian widow, turned her home into a refuge for hundreds of orphaned children with AIDS.
■ CRIME
Taiwanese nabbed in scam
Malaysian police have arrested seven Taiwanese nationals over an international mobile phone text messaging scam, a senior police officer said yesterday. Six Taiwanese men and one woman were detained for questioning on Monday in Georgetown, northwestern Penang State, the senior police officer handling the case said. "They were picked up after several months of investigation," said the officer, who did not wish to be named. "We hope with their detention, the SMS [text message] scam ring has been busted," he said. The Star newspaper reported yesterday that Malaysians had been conned out of about 35 million ringgit (US$10 million) after they responded to text messages telling them they had won some money and were urged to gamble further. About 40 people, mostly Malaysians, were also arrested in connection with the scam, the Star reported. It said that the crime ring running the operation was based in Hong Kong or Taiwan.
■ POLITICS
Lien Chan heads to China
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) headed for China yesterday on a private visit, KMT officials said. Lien, accompanied by his wife, will transfer in Hong Kong en route to China. Prior to his departure from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Lien declined to answer questions from reporters regarding a local newspaper report claiming that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) had sent a letter to KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in which he voiced his objection to a KMT campaign aimed at holding a referendum on the country's UN bid.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods