■ DIPLOMACY
Representative heads to US
Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷), Taiwan's new deputy representative to the US, will arrive in Washington tomorrow to assume his post, an official at Taiwan's representative office in the US said on Monday. Tung, Taiwan's representative to Greece before being appointed to the new post, is filling the vacancy left by Stanley Kao (高碩泰), who became representative to Hungary on Feb. 1. The officials said that Tung -- who has also worked at Taiwan's offices in Houston and New York and previously headed the Geneva branch of Taiwan's representative office in Switzerland and Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of International Organizations -- is familiar with Taiwan-US affairs and the operations of international organizations.
■ RESEARCH
NSC honors researchers
The National Science Council (NSC) yesterday lauded 173 outstanding researchers, including 100 college students, for their achievements in their fields of study. Awards included "Outstanding Contract Researcher Awards," "Outstanding Research Awards," "Outstanding Technical Transfer Awards," and "Outstanding College Student Research Awards" and recognized the work the recipients had completed over the last year. Three other researchers were also recognized for their accomplishments in collaborating with the industry and solidifying research results into concrete products. The awards aimed to encourage research, improve academic excellence, foster innovative technologies and develop young talent in science, NSC minister Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said at the ceremony.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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