■ POLITICS
Six vie for deputy speaker
Four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators registered with the party as candidates for deputy legislative speaker yesterday, bringing the total number of hopefuls to six. KMT legislators John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) sent their applications yesterday, while KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) and KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) registered with the party on Thursday. KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who has promised to select the candidate via a democratic mechanism, will meet the interested candidates this afternoon to discuss the selection.
■ TOURISM
No change on visas: Canada
Canada welcomes Taiwanese tourists with open arms but has no plans to change its visa policy for Taiwanese nationals, the Canadian Trade Office in Taiwan (CTOT) said on Thursday. Taiwan has called on Canada to provide visa-free treatment for Taiwanese nationals, saying that Canada should follow Japan's example, which lifted all visa requirements for Taiwanese tourists on March 11 last year. A local newspaper reported that Canada had decided against waiving visa requirements because of security concerns, worrying that some Chinese would enter Canada illegally using counterfeit Taiwanese passports. CTOT officials declined to comment on the news report, saying only that Taiwanese tourists are welcome in Canada as long as they follow the standard visa application procedures.
■ HEALTH
Banned chemicals found
One of 240 randomly tested vegetable samples contained residues of chemicals that are banned by the WHO for agricultural purposes, Hsieh Ting-hung (謝定宏), deputy director of the Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis, said yesterday. The banned chemicals are dicrotophos and fipronil, which are used to exterminate insect parasites on leafy vegetables, he said. The residual level for dicrotophos was recorded at 0.23ppm, exceeding the suggested acceptable daily intake (ADI) set by Japanese food authorities at 0.000066 mg/kg body weight per day, while the residual level for fipronil was 0.2ppm, surpassing the suggested ADI set by experts on pesticide residues in food and the environment at 0.0002 mg/kg body weight per day. Excessive levels of dicrotophos might cause people to lose their balance, while a high intake of fipronil might lead to liver poisoning and thyrotoxicosis, Hsieh said.
■ CONSTRUCTION
Southern metropolis planned
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday introduced a plan to forge a southern metropolitan area through the development of five major southern cities and counties. The plan aims to capitalize on the region's dual advantages -- its unique culture and marine industry -- to promote development in the area, an official with the ministry's Construction and Planning Agency said. Designed by the nonprofit Institute for Physical Planning and Information, the plan listed 10 major areas of investment needed to create the envisioned new metropolitan area. They include renovating the area's seaports and airports, strengthening the network linking industry and academia, and promoting better water resources management. Officials responsible for construction projects in the five cities and counties featured in the plan took part in the seminar yesterday.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration is seeking to join an Indo-Pacific economic framework being planned by the US, a senior official said. The government is paying close attention to the regional economic pact being touted by US President Joe Biden, although too few details have emerged from Washington for Taipei to make specific plans, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The US is expected to launch the Indo-Pacific economic framework next month after negotiations with Australia, India and Japan, the official said. The economic initiative is to tackle trade facilitation, standards for the digital economy and technology, supply-chain resiliency and
‘NEW YEAR GIFT’: While the MAC called the song propaganda, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said that it addressed the homesickness of ‘Taiwanese compatriots’ A pro-unification pop song aired on Chinese television earlier this month would only further sour Taiwanese sentiment toward China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Wednesday. The music video for We Sing the Same Song (我們同唱一首歌), which aired on China Central Television, features Chinese artists performing alongside Taiwanese singers Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Chen Li-nong (陳立農). The lyrics were reportedly written by Taiwanese lyricist Vincent Fang (方文山), known for his collaborations with Jay Chou (周杰倫), to music composed by a Chinese musician. Sung in Chinese and Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), the song is about three Taiwanese siblings who
RULES TIGHTENED: Passengers arriving from Sydney and Los Angeles tested positive for COVID-19, while passengers arriving from Seattle all tested negative Seventeen of the 217 passengers who arrived on long-haul at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday morning tested positive for COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the positivity rate was higher than expected. Yesterday was the first day that the government enforced stricter health guidelines for the testing of passengers arriving on long-haul flights. They must undergo a polymerase chain reaction test immediately after arriving at the nation’s international airports. Those who test positive are sent directly to hospitals to avoid spreading the virus to people working in and around the airports and at quarantine hotels. Victor Wang (王必勝),
SEPARATE CASE? A woman tested positive when she went with her daughter to be tested, because her daughter had taken the same bus to school as a steakhouse worker The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 10 local COVID-19 cases, six of whom had visited a steakhouse in Taoyuan where an infection cluster has been reported. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that of the 10 local infections, one case — No. 17,928 — is a Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport disease prevention staffer who works in the area where inbound travelers collect their saliva for a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and sometimes at the fever screening station. The staffer had tested negative in a PCR test on Jan. 9 and
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