■ 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.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
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