■ POLITICS
More women voted: CEC
More women than men voted in last month’s presidential election, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday. CEC figures showed that only 6,504,575 out of a total of 8,670,480 eligible male voters cast their ballots — a turnout of 75.02 percent. The figure was slightly lower than the number of females who voted, which was 77.65 percent. A total of 6,717,276 out of 8,651,142 eligible female voters went to the polls.
■ CRIME
Man arrested in Manila
A Taiwanese man suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and credit card fraud was arrested in the Philippine capital, a police spokesman said yesterday. Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said Yang Chih-chien was arrested on Sunday during a raid on his house in a posh subdivision in the Manila suburban city of Paranaque. Bartolome said the raiding team recovered 70kg of ketamine, a prohibited drug, with a street value of 350 million pesos (US$8.43 million). Police also recovered equipment and supplies used in the duplication and manufacture of fake credit cards and passports. Bartolome said the suspect was also facing various criminal charges in Manila and the central city of Cebu, but had posted bail.
■ FOOD
Milk passes residue test
Milk reported to have been tainted by antibiotics has passed drug residue tests, a Council of Agriculture (COA) official said yesterday. Huang Ying-hao (黃英豪), director of the council’s Department of Animal Industry, said health and agricultural authorities collected samples of the raw and processed milk in question for tests and the results “were either negative or showed no drug residue.” The allegedly tainted milk was sold under two fresh milk brands — Highland and General Milk (將軍牛乳) — which are both marketed by leading food manufacturer AGV Products Corp (愛之味). The milk was processed by an AGV-contracted dairy processing plant in Miaoli County. The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported on April 16 that one of the plant’s suppliers in Yunlin County supplied milk from diseased cows that was purchased at low prices from neighboring dairy farms. The revelation prompted AGV to recall the two brand and led health and agricultural authorities to launch an investigation.
■ SOCIETY
Students injured in accident
Fifteen students from National Taishan Senior High School were injured early yesterday when the bus carrying them to school crashed into a truck on the Dahan Bridge linking Banciao and Sinjhuang. Firemen and other emergency workers sent the 15 students, including four girls, to three hospitals for treatment. Most of the students suffered lacerations to the face, chest and knees. Several of them required stitches. Police said that a city bus owned by Sanchung Bus Co was carrying more than 30 students from Banciao City to their school, Taishan Senior High School in Taishan Township (泰山), when the accident occurred. Kung Chun-min (龔俊銘), the 38-year-old bus driver, said that as he drove onto the bridge, he saw that the roadway was covered with a film of grease. “I was driving at 40kph when I noticed that the truck ahead of me had stopped. I started to brake from 100m away, but could not stop the bus,” he said. Chiu Ching-han (邱清含), 33, the driver of the truck, said he also noticed the grease and had stopped the truck in order to caution traffic policemen on the other side of the road.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
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