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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ TRAVEL

Fraud alert issued

The Tourism Bureau warned consumers yesterday to be careful when shopping for bargain travel packages online. The bureau said reputable travel agencies would not just provide a mobile phone number for contact. Bureau officials said consumers should only use online travel agencies whose Web sites list their name, address, registration number, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. The warning came after the non-profit Travel Quality Assurance Association said it had received a complaint last week from Taipei-based Spunk Tour Co that its name had been misappropriated by a group advertising low-priced package tours in a newspaper ad. Consumers can check the Web site of the Net Consumers Association (NCA) (www.nca.org.tw) to see if a tour company has been certified as reliable, the officials said. They said there are about 201 NCA-certified agencies in the country.



■ GOVERNMENT

Web goof brings apology

A media firm apologized yesterday for locating the UN's headquarters in San Francisco on a Ministry of Education Web site. The UN is headquartered in New York City. The Web site was designed to provide more information on the world organization and press the case for Taiwan's UN bid. A company spokesman said the ministry was not to blame for the blunder, which has been corrected.



■ SOCIETY

More seek help for funerals

At least 10,000 people die every year without leaving enough money to pay for their funerals, the Goodwill Charity Association said yesterday. While most were vagrants and senior citizens living alone, an growing number are middle-aged men from disadvantaged families, the association said. It said the number of people seeking its help for funeral expenses rose to 137 last year, five times the number recorded in 2001. Association president Kuo Chih-hsiang (郭志祥) said his group has handled 750 cases in the past 11 years, 677 in the past seven years alone. Of these cases, 50.81 percent involved a person aged between 20 and 50, Kuo said. Last year, 73 out of 137 cases the association handled involved people aged between 20 and 60, he said. The association provides free funeral services to members of disadvantaged groups.



■ SOCIETY

Antiques to be examined

Taipei prosecutors said yesterday that two pieces from former Taiwan Pineapple Corp chairman Huang Tsung-hung's (黃宗宏) antique collection might be national treasures. More than 50 of Huang's antiques were seized after he said he could not pay a NT$100 million (US$3 million) fine he received after being convicted of misappropriating Chung Hsing Commercial Bank funds. Prosecutors have asked the National Palace Museum to examine the two pieces, a decorated plate that might be from the Ching dynasty court and a statue of Buddha. Huang was sentenced to eight-and-half years in prison last October. He was arrested in Keelung last November while attempting to flee the country and sent to Taipei Prison.



■ CRIME

Aussie sniffer dogs on order

Four drug-sniffer dogs from Australia will arrive by the end of this year, customs officials said yesterday. Five customs officials will go to Australia next month for training in handling the dogs. Officials will use the dogs to search for illegal drugs in goods exported to Australia or in the luggage of tourists traveling to Australia, the officials said.
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