■ EVENTS
Shuttle buses to run today
The Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday that it will offer shuttle buses to and from Pingtung County's Dapeng Bay (大鵬灣) for National Day fireworks. After an administrative meeting yesterday morning, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that buses would leave every 30 minutes from Kaohsiung Train Station between 1pm and 3:30pm. The buses will return from Dapeng Bay every 30 minutes between 8:30pm and 10:30pm, Chen said. The measure, Chen said, was intended to encourage residents to take public transportation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Kaohsiung Bus Service Administration Director Tseng An-li (曾安麗) said the bus ride would cost NT$30 to cover insurance.
■ POLITICS
Shih to give speech today
Shih Ming-teh (施明德), leader of a campaign to pressure President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) into resigning, will walk to the National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Office this morning and make a speech, the campaign said yesterday. Campaign spokesman Jerry Fan (范可欽) said Shih -- a former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party -- would be the group's sole representative at the ceremony. Shih will leave for the celebrations from the campaign's office on Chinan Road at 9:40am, and walk to the event wearing a red shirt, Fan said.
■ DIPLOMACY
Chen thanks Swaziland
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) expressed gratitude to Swaziland, one of the government's African allies, for speaking up for Taiwan's application to join the UN at the world body's general assembly. Chen made the remarks while meeting on Monday with Swazi House of Assembly Speaker Prince Guduza Dlamini, who is visiting with a delegation to attend Double Ten National Day celebrations. Chen also thanked Guduza for his country's efforts to incorporate Taiwan into international projects. Chen said a medical cooperation protocol signed with Swaziland when King Mswati III visited Taiwan for the Taiwan-Africa leadership summit last month would see Taiwan send a medical team at the beginning of next year to provide medical aid in Swaziland on a long-term basis. A protocol on cooperation between the countries over the next 10 years will soon go into effect and ensure continued good relations, Chen said.
■ HEALTH
Officials tackle dengue
The Kaohsiung County Government has sent health officials and quarantine experts to Tainan City to help halt an expanding outbreak of dengue fever ahead of the Oct. 20 opening of the 2007 National Athletic Games, a county official said yesterday. Kaohsiung County Bureau of Health Director Huang Chih-chung (黃志中), made the announcement in a report to the county government. Huang said that the number of indigenous dengue fever cases in Tainan City had reached 477 since the beginning of the year, while Kaohsiung City has recorded 64 cases and Tainan County 32. Given that the dengue fever virus will remain infectious through the end of this month, Huang suggested that athletes participating in the games in Tainan City take precautions against contracting the illness. The National Athletic Games will determine which athletes compete in the Olympic Games in Beijing next year.
■ CRIME
Travelers caught with crabs
Customs officers have seized Chinese hairy crabs weighing a total of 274kg from inbound travelers since Sept. 8, the Taipei Customs Office said yesterday. It said in a press release that the sought-after crabs could pose a health threat. If travelers attempt to sneak them into the country, they will invariably be detected by customs officers or X-ray machines, it said, adding that officials were finding and destroying large numbers of hairy crabs every day. Taiwan adopted stricter inspection criteria to deal with Chinese hairy crabs this year after imported crabs last year were found to contain traces of the banned antibiotic nitrofuran, a cancer-causing agent. China recently accused Taiwan of adopting excessively stringent criteria, and said that unless the two nations could reach an agreement on inspection, Taiwanese would not be able to enjoy Chinese crabs this year. Local crab importers have
yet to apply for an import license this year, the Department of Health said.
■ SOCIETY
Taipei to host design meet
Taipei has won its bid to host the 2011 World Design Congress, defeating the other finalist, Melbourne, Ministry of Economic Affairs officials said yesterday. Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) was scheduled to call a news conference last night to officially announce the news, the officials said. Taipei filed its application with the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) in January and competed with 19 other cities from 13 countries for the right to host the event. After several rounds of voting, Taipei and Melbourne were shortlisted as finalists.
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