Taiwan News Quick Take

■POLITICS

Officials to meet Tibetan

Officials Taiwan’s representative office in Japan are expected to meet a Tibetan-Taiwanese activist today who was arrested by Japanese authorities on Saturday for trying to grab the Olympic torch during the Japan leg of the relay in Nagano, said Peter Tsai (蔡明耀), deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Committee of Japanese Affairs. Tsai said that Japanese authorities had asked the court to detain Tashi Tsering, the 38-year-old vice chairman of the Taiwan chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress, for 10 more days on top of his initial 48-hour holding period, during which Tsering was kept incommunicado. “The government is doing all it can to have him repatriated and has requested the Japanese authorities to ensure his rights are respected during his incarceration,” Tsai said.



■POLITICS

Lien to attend Olympics

Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) has agreed to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August at the invitation of Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong (郭金龍), the Central News Agency said. The invitation was issued during a sculpture unveiling ceremony in Beijing’s Olympic park yesterday, the agency said, adding that Lien and his wife had accepted the invitation. The sculpture was a gift from Lien to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).



■HEALTH

Man detained over coconuts

Taipei County law enforcement and consumer rights authorities yesterday tracked down a businessman suspected of illegally disposing of 21 tonnes of coconuts imported from Thailand that were found to contain residues of a banned pesticide. The businessman, Mo Yu-huei (莫酋惠), was taken to the Criminal Investigation Bureau early yesterday to be questioned. A local cable TV news station reported that Mo refused to say who bought the tainted coconuts but said his company had sold the goods to street vendors. Authorities yesterday inspected hypermarkets around the county, including RT-Mart, Carrefour and Wellcome, but none were found to be selling the suspect coconuts. The Department of Health reported on Monday that tests on samples from a shipment of some 30,000 Rungtawan coconuts showed they contained 0.18ppm of the fungicide Carbendazim.



■POLITICS

No China meet planned

Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman-designate Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) denied yesterday he was planning to meet the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) on May 25. Chiang, who returned from a four-day visit to China on Monday afternoon, said in a written statement yesterday that he had no plans to visit China again next month, as the government’s power transfer and reshuffle of the SEF would be his priority during the period. “I never planned to visit China on May 25 and I certainly will not take the occasion to meet Chen,” Chiang said. Chiang issued the statement in response to a report in the Chinese-language United Daily News, which claimed that Chiang had cancelled his meeting with Chen on Monday afternoon after receiving a telephone call from China. The story blamed the cancellation of Chiang’s China visit on president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) appointment of former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Lai Shin-yuan (賴辛媛) as the chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council.