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Taiwan Quick Take

■ POLITICS
DPP reaches signature goal
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday that it has gathered more than the 2 million signatures needed for the second phase of petition for a referendum on Taiwan's UN membership. The announcement came one day before the legal deadline. DPP Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that the party had collected 2.03 million signatures as of 4pm and would send them to the Central Election Commission by the middle of next month. Cho said he hoped the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would adopt a practical and responsible approach to examine the need for its referendum proposal seeking UN membership under the name the "Republic of China." The DPP's Central Standing Committee decided on Oct. 3 to raise its target from 1 million signatures to 2 million. It reached the 1 million goal on Oct. 9 and 1.5 million on Oct. 23.

■ CRIME
Six illegals nabbed at airport
Six Chinese women were nabbed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday after attempting to use fake Republic of China passports to travel to the US, customs officials said yesterday. The women had arrived from Hong Kong earlier in the day, the officials said. The women were questioned after officials recognized their passports were fake. They told officials that they had come from Fujian Province through arrangements with a human-trafficking group in China and were planning to work in the US. The women said they had been told where to find the fake passports and boarding passes to the US, which had been hidden in the Taoyuan airport, the officials said. Taoyuan prosecutors are investigating the case.

■ POLITICS
Anti-Chen campaign closes
The anti-President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) campaign drew to a close yesterday after organizers donated their remaining funds to five charities, a spokesman said. "Now that Chen Shui-bian is going to step down in next May, we have decided to donate the rest of the funds we hold to charity groups," said John Wei (魏千峰), deputy leader of the One Million Voices Against Corruption. The campaign was started in August last year by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) with the purpose of bringing down Chen over a string of corruption scandals linked to him, his family and government. The campaign collected more than NT$100 million (US$3 million) in donations. Wei said the campaign had NT$15.6 million left over.

■ LABOR
Women get business help
The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) will help women start their own businesses by providing them with appropriate job training and a loan of up to NT$500,000, council officials in Kaohsiung said on Monday. The officials said that women who hope to start their own businesses should enroll in one of the CLA's "Phoenix" training programs. Women who complete the required training will be eligible to apply for a loan from the council after presenting a business plan, they said. They said 780 women from the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area have completed the job training, and that 170 women nationwide have presented plans and obtained loans to start their own businesses. Three courses for beginners were set to begin this week at different locations in the south, followed by three advanced courses that will begin between Nov. 7 and Nov. 21 in Kaohsiung.

■ SHIPPING
Radioactive shipment found
Honduran customs authorities seized a Taiwan-bound container with a radioactive load, Honduran media reported on Monday. The container, which was confiscated on Saturday, emitted radiation levels 131 times higher than normal. Honduran authorities have launched a probe into the radioactive material, which they speculated could be "scraps" of cesium 137. The load belonged to the firm Inversiones Materiales, which is owned by a US citizen, and the container was part of a shipment of 20 containers. The rest of the load was to be sent to Taiwan yesterday on a Panamanian-flagged vessel.

■ SOCIETY
Medical groups to sign pact
The Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps was yesterday to sign a memorandum of understanding with Peace Winds Japan in an effort to expand its global reach, a corps spokesman said on Monday. Corps president Liu Chi-chun (劉啟群) said that the two organizations could integrate their educational and medical resources to provide a wider range of services around the world. Liu said that the corps was the only local non-governmental body using the name "Taiwan" to have been admitted to the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the UN. Since its establishment 11 years ago, the corps has been engaged in humanitarian relief work and in providing medical aid at home and in 25 nations in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, Liu said, adding that during the 1999 Kosovo War, the corps had been the only Asian non-governmental organization to fly to Macedonia to help refugees. Liu said the corps also provided free medical services to local indigenous people in mountainous areas.


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