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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ TRANSPORTATION

Free bus trial to begin

Starting tomorrow, the Kao-hsiung City Government will begin offering free bus rides on Thursdays on a trial basis, the city government said yesterday. The city’s Transportation Bureau issued a press release saying that bus rides on the city’s 82 bus routes would be free of charge every Thursday for three months. It said the city hopes to encourage more residents to use public transportation. The city government will also offer passengers free rides on six of the city’s holiday sightseeing bus routes, including one along the city’s coast line, one to the city’s Cijin District (旗津) and one to the city’s old neighborhood in Yencheng District (鹽埕). The buses will operate every Saturday and Sunday, the bureau said. The bureau said that although both free ride schemes are expected to increase the city government’s expenditure by NT$30 million (US$988,000), the plans are expected to help reduce carbon dioxide emission by 170 tonnes.



■ POLITICS

Exam yuan may face cuts

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday urged the Presidential Office to support his proposal to halve the size of the Examination Yuan. Tsai highlighted the financial benefits to the public if the Examination Yuan were downsized from 21 people to 9 people. He said the annual salary of each member of the Examination Yuan is about NT$5 million. Halving the government branch would help the government save about NT$50 million every year, he said. Given the Presidential Office’s promotion of government frugality, the Examination Yuan should also be halved “like the Legislative Yuan was,” he said. Tsai said legislators across party lines had reached a consensus regarding the proposal, but the legislature had yet to schedule the bill for a preliminary review because of opposition from the Presidential Office.



■ DIPLOMACY

Ma meets Holy See officials

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) met the Holy See’s new charge d’affaires in Taiwan, Monsignor Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, and his predecessor, Monsignor Ambrose Madtha, at the Presidential Office yesterday. During the meeting, Ma said that relations between Taiwan and the Vatican have been harmonious, adding that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited the Holy See in May 2005 to attend the late Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Fitzpatrick Russell was named the Vatican’s new diplomatic representative to Taiwan early last month, after Madtha was named Apostolic Nuncio to Ivory Coast in West Africa. Ma said that relations between Taiwan and the Vatican were very close during Ambrose’s five-plus years as the Holy See’s representative, adding that he would be missed by everyone in Taiwan. The president also welcomed the new representative. The Vatican is the only state in Europe that diplomatically recognizes Taiwan.



■ HEALTH

Boy dies of enterovirus

A two-year-old boy in Taichung County has died of serious enterovirus infection, making him the country’s fifth victim of the disease so far this year, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday. The DOH’s Centers for Disease Control was expected to hold a news conference later yesterday to announce whether an enterovirus outbreak alert would be issued with an increased response level. Enterovirus is a virus that enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract, where it thrives.
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