■ HEALTH
Woman seeking donor
A Chinese-American woman suffering from leukemia is looking for a compatible ethnic Chinese donor for a bone marrow transplant, members of a Taiwanese expatriate group in the US said on Thursday. Ethnic Chinese aged 18 to 55 who are physically fit and willing to help are urged to get blood tests to see if they are a match for the 35-year-old woman surnamed Hsu, the US east coast chapter of the National Women's League of the Republic of China said. Potential donors can have their blood samples collected for testing at the following locations in New York: Central Islip Campus, New York Institute and Technology at 1:30pm tomorrow; Boon Church of Overseas Chinese Mission, Flushing, at 1pm next Sunday; and Chung Hwa Book Inc, Flushing, at 4pm next Sunday. They can also contact Cammy Lee Leukemia Foundation Inc at 16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10D, New York, or check out www.cllf.org.
■ HORTICULTURE
Expo logo, mascot unveiled
The Taipei City Government yesterday unveiled the logo and mascot for the 2010 Taipei International Gardening and Horticulture Exposition, which will be held from Nov. 6, 2010 to April 30, 2011, at the Zhongshan Soccer Stadium. The logo featured a flower composed of human shapes in five different colors, while the mascot, called "Flower Band," was formed by five smiling fairies. Lee Kai-an (李鎧安), designer of the mascot, said he combined the elements of flower and music to add some vitality to the design. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said Taipei will be the seventh Asian city to host the exposition, and the event is expected to attract more than 6 million visitors and boost the floricultural and tourism industries.
■ CONSERVATION
Rodent may be protected
The Council of Agriculture will soon list the Asiatic water shrew as the country's first protected rodent. The council's Forestry Bureau paved the way for the decision by approving a proposal to list the Asiatic water shrew as a protected species at a commissioners' meeting on the preservation of wild animals on Thursday. Lin Liang-kong (林良恭), a professor at Tunghai University's Department of Life Science, said the Asiatic water shrew -- one of 19 types of rodents in the country -- was discovered in 1971 along the Mei River in central Taiwan. The polluted river and a river treatment project have resulted in a sharp decline in the rodent's population in the area. The Asiatic water shrew weighs a maximum of 50g to 60g and feeds on water insects, small fish and small shrimp. It lives close to the water, and snakes are its natural enemy.
■ EDUCATION
College entrance test starts
The annual national college entrance examination started yesterday with more than 150,000 students taking the test. The two-day exam is held in every county across the nation, including the outlying islands. The College Entrance Examination Center said that only 1.7 percent, or 2,490, registered test takers, including seven students with special needs, failed to show up. A majority of the examinees said the test was more difficult than they had expected. One student, Lin Hung-hsun (林鴻勛) of the Taipei School for the Visually Impaired, took the test while hooked up to an oxygen tank. Lin, who suffers from lung disease, said he wanted "to give himself a chance" to take up public administration in college.
■ CRIME
PFP's Lin Chung-te indicted
Former People First Party (PFP) legislator Lin Chun-te (林春德) was indicted yesterday for vote-buying during his re-election campaign. Nantou prosecutors asked the Nantou District Court to sentence Lin to five years in jail and fine him NT$5 million (US$155,000). Lin lost his bid for re-election in the Jan. 12 legislative elections as an Aboriginal candidate. Prosecutors said that between July and November last year, Lin allegedly treated a total of nearly 100 Aboriginal voters to trips to Hualien, Taoyuan and China in return for their votes. Ten others were indicted in connection with Lin's case.
■ CRIME
Kaohsiung official indicted
Hsiao Yu-cheng (蕭裕正), the director of the Kaohsiung City Government Bureau of Environmental Protection, was indicted yesterday on charges of corruption and violations of the Election and Recall Law of Civil Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法). Prosecutors asked the Kaoshiung District Court to sentence Hsiao to 14 years in jail. Hsiao is accused of wining and dining Kaohsiung street cleaners in the hope of winning their support for a candidate in the Jan. 12 legislative elections. According to prosecutors, Hsiao solicited support for the candidate while throwing a lunch party on Nov. 24 for city cleaning staff. Prosecutors said Hsiao also embezzled funds from the bureau.
■ SOCIETY
Wheelchair access required
New buildings must be equipped with facilities for disabled people from this month or they will not pass inspection, the Ministry of the Interior said on Thursday. The announcement came after the ministry approved amendments to regulations governing wheelchair access to facilities within public buildings. The amendments are part of the ministry's efforts to expand the current scope of the regulations to create a more friendly environment for disabled people, an official said. Under the amendments, the definition of public buildings will be extended to include convenience stores, hypermarkets, cram schools and daycare centers occupying an area of over 500m2, the official said.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
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