■ POLITICS
Local officials vow boycott
Eighteen pan-blue-governed city and county governments yesterday signed a joint statement supporting the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) proposal to boycott the Central Election Commission's plan to hold the presidential election and UN referendum at the same time. The pan-blue city and county government heads pledged to hand out the ballots for the two votes separately during the March election, adding that they would not follow any central government instructions to hand out the ballots together. The commission will make a final decision tomorrow about whether the election and referendum should be held at the same time. KMT Organization and Development Committee Director Liao Fung-te (廖風德) said the city and county government heads felt that handing out the ballots separately would be simpler for poll staff. "The Local Government Act (地方自治法) grants local governments the authority to handle elections and we will do it our own way," he said.
■ GOVERNMENT
Radio budget slashed
The government's Radio Taiwan International (RTI) had two-thirds of its budget blocked by pan-blue legislators at the Education and Cultural Committee meeting yesterday. Some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers said they opposed the station's program Taiwan Perspective. KMT Lawmaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) accused RTI of being politically biased and lacking journalistic ethics. RTI president Lin Feng-cheng (林峰正) said the radio station would not survive past next April or May if the legislators slash its budget. He said the station had always maintained high journalistic professionalism and accurately reflected the voice of the people.
■ POLITICS
Chen calls for budget debate
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who doubles as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), called yesterday for debate with the opposition parties on defense budget cuts. Chen made the appeal at a meeting of the DPP Central Executive Committee after the opposition parties recently slashed the whole research and development budget for the military to develop the country's own advanced weapons. Chen instructed the DPP legislative caucus to endeavor to have the budget reinstated. He said if this does not happen, he will ask for a public debate with the opposition parties on the issue of whether the country needs defense in an effort to give the public a better understanding of who the real defender of Taiwan is and who is on China's side. Noting that Beijing had 200 missiles targeting Taiwan in 2000 when he became president, Chen said the number of missiles has now increased to 988.
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA";
■ HEALTH
Medical technique succeeds
Taipei Medical University Hospital recently used a new technique to remove uterine fibroids during a cesarean delivery, the director of the hospital's Obstetrics and Gynecology Department announced yesteday. The excised fibroid weighed 3.8kg, which was bigger and heavier than the baby, who weighed only 2.8kg, said Liu Wei-min (劉偉民). Liu said the patient was diagnosed in March with a uterine fibroid 30 cm long, which at first led him to mistakenly believe the patient was in her 25th week of pregnancy. Liu said after he delivered the baby, he ligated the uterine arteries to prevent massive hemorrhaging and then removed the fibroid. Traditionally, a woman suffering from uterine fibroids during pregnancy, surgery must wait more than six months after the birth for surgery, Liu said.
■ CRIME
Fake sports products seized
Police seized 600 pairs of counterfeit sports shoes and 300 sports shirts imported from China and arrested a suspect surnamed Lai in a raid in Taichung County, Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) officials reported yesterday. The officials said they were patrolling the Internet when they came across a Web site selling brand-name sports shoes at one-third of the normal price. They contacted Taichung County police who raided two warehouses full of counterfeit Puma, Adidas and Nike sports shoes. Lai told police he became involved with a counterfeit ring in Guangzhou three years ago. They ran ads on an overseas Web site to evade police detection. He said the counterfeit products were imported at a price of between NT$200 and NT$300 but sold for between NT$1,000 and NT$2,000.
Staff writer, with Agencies";
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS