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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ POLITICS

Pressure sways Taiwan Post

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said yesterday the Taiwan Post Co had agreed to issue and sell a set of personalized stamps that she had designed. The Taiwan Post Co, which had previously refused to issue and sell Pan's stamps, changed its mind after the opposition threatened to slash the state-run company's budget request, she said. Pan said she had placed the order for the stamps last month, following which she made changes to the design several times at the request of the company after it told her that her design was too similar to a set of stamps featuring the national flag previously issued by the company. Despite the company's change of heart, Pan yesterday continued to criticize it, saying the company should not have considered the flag "politically sensitive" because Taiwan had not changed the national flag.



■ ENVIRONMENT

Mystery fish deaths probed

The Eastern Coastal Patrol Office and Taitung County Government have organized a special team to probe the mysterious deaths of large numbers of corals and deep sea fish off the coast of Green Island (綠島) over the past few weeks, a local official said on Wednesday. Since Dec. 21, waves of dead fish have been swept ashore each day on Green Island, or Lutao, Lutao Township (綠島) Mayor Chen Chia-wen (陳嘉文) said. At first, island residents would pick up the fish and take them home to eat, but stopped doing so after more dead fish continued to wash ashore, Chen said. Chen Ming-hsiu (鄭明修), a researcher with the Academia Sinica Research Center for Biodiversity, said he has begun laboratory tests on tissues taken from the dead fish and that the test results would be available in a few days. Fishery officials advised local people to refrain from eating the fish.



■ HEALTH

Peak flu figures expected

The number of people suffering from influenza is rising steadily, with the number of infections expected to peak next week, the Department of Health said. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director Lin Ting (林頂) said on Wednesday that the number of people suffering from flu has steadily risen from 3.4 to 3.96 per 100 over the past four weeks, reaching an alarming level. Eighteen clusters of flu outbreaks have been reported this winter. Of these, 13 were in schools, 11 of which were in elementary schools, meaning that schools, parents and students should be on guard, he said. Lee Ping-ying (李秉穎), a pediatrician at the National Taiwan University Hospital, urged people to seek proper treatment to prevent their condition from worsening or leading to other complications.



■ POLITICS

Young activists support TSU

A group of young advocates of a military enlistment system yesterday urged the electorate to support the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which they said was the only political party fully backing their cause. Cheng Kai-feng (鄭凱峰), convener of the Taiwan Youthwake Organization, said they had collected more than 33,000 endorsements since launching a signature drive about four months ago. Instead of gradually reducing the term of military service, it would make more sense to recruit qualified people interested in a military career and spend government resources on them, Cheng said. TSU spokeswoman Chou Mei-li (周美里) said her party would make an effort to recommend the idea to the new legislature.



■ SOCIETY

Drumming world record set

Taipei County residents rang in the New Year on Tuesday by breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people drumming simultaneously in one location, in an activity held outside the county hall. The effort was organized by the Taipei County Government to celebrate the county's upgrade to a quasi-special municipality on Oct. 1 last year. Residents began gathering at the site at 2pm on Tuesday for the record attempt. At 5pm, 10,162 participants simultaneously beat their drums for five minutes to formally establish a new Guinness World Record, breaking the old record of 10,045 people set in Hong Kong.



■ ARTS

Troupe appeals for funds

Spanish theater company La Fura dels Baus has been seeking donations to repair its "floating stage" ship, which was damaged in a collision with another vessel en route to Kaohsiung last month to stage a New Year's Eve show. The 61m-long Nauron, which means "ship of the world," suffered damage to its bow and internal structure when it grazed another vessel in a near head-on collision while sailing through the Strait of Malacca in the early hours of Dec. 29, said Chen Chi (陳琪), executive secretary of the Taipei Arts Association. Despite the damage, the sturdy ice-breaker-turned-ship was able to complete its journey to Kaohsiung, Chen said. However, the ship was later denied permission to leave port after the Kaohsiung Harbor Administration conducted tests and determined the damage to be so extensive that it might jeopardize the ship's safety, she said. As a result, the theater company is appealing to the Kaohsiung public for donations to enable it to repair the ship and travel home.
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