■ CULTURE
Filipino festival to be held
The 2008 Taipei Filipino Festival will be held tomorrow at Da-an Park in Taipei to celebrate Philippine Independence Day and the country’s culture. The festival, which will be held between 10am and 6pm, will feature 20 stalls selling Philippine snacks as well as dancing and singing performances. Rodulfo Sabulao, director of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office’s labor center, said during a press conference at Taipei City Hall yesterday that Philippine Independence Day fell on June 12 and holding the festival tomorrow would give Filipinos a chance to get together and celebrate their national holiday. Taipei City’s Labor Affairs Department said there are about 8,000 Filipinos working in Taiwan. The city government has cooperated with the Manila Economic and Cultural Office to hold the festival to allow “new immigrants” from the Philippines and local residents to experience Filipino culture and enjoy the holiday.
■DIPLOMACY
St. Lucia reaffirms ties
St. Lucian Prime Minister Stephenson King yesterday expressed his nation’s gratitude for Taiwan’s technical assistance and reaffirmed that ties between the two nations were firm and stable since the renewal of diplomatic relations in April last year. King made the remarks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the two governments signed an agreement to boost bilateral agricultural cooperation and released a new book featuring wild birds of St. Lucia. St. Lucia was the only ally not represented at President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration ceremony last month. St. Lucian Agriculture Minister Ezechiel Joseph also thanked Taiwan’s agricultural mission and said many Caribbean nations were closely “observing and analyzing” how the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Taipei had benefited his country.
■SOCIETY
Club holds rummage sale
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual summer rummage sale tomorrow from 10am to 5pm in the school’s forecourt and lobby — come rain or shine. Club members have collected a huge variety of new and used clothing, shoes, sports equipment, games and toys, furniture, household appliances and other items. The money raised will provide funding for orphans and other children in need across the nation and abroad. TAS is located at 800 Zhongshan N Rd, Sec 6, in Tianmu (天母).
■HEALTH
Summer camps planned
Special summer camps to educate mothers on healthy food and encourage children to eat more vegetables and fruit will open next month, the Homemaker’s Union and Foundation (HUF) said yesterday. HUF executive secretary Chen Ju-wei (陳儒瑋) said many mothers were not aware that local markets were full of tainted foods and cooking materials and the HUF hoped that, through the event, mothers could gain a better understanding of how to select good quality foodstuffs. “We at the HUF would like to help participating mothers gain knowledge that enables them to purchase good and healthy food for their family,” Chen said. He said that the camp would include a variety of activities, such as teaching children to make gelatins containing fruit. Chen said mothers with a child aged between between nine and 12 could register directly with the HUF to attend one of the four half-day camps to be held on July 5, July 11, July 19 and July 29. The cost for each mother-child pairing would be NT$200, which covers the cost of registration and the materials used, Chen said.
■Health
Blood donors wanted
The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation voiced hope yesterday that 15,000 people under 30 years of age would donate blood on a regular basis to help more than 400 thalassemic patients. Foundation officials said it would begin a one-month blood donor drive today, World Blood Donation Day, to meet the goal. Officials said that thalassemic patients rely heavily on high-quality blood to survive. Chang Yu-cheng, a 30-year-old thalassemic sufferer, said she has been receiving blood transfusions since she was three months old. “We’re modern-day Draculas,” Chang said of herself and fellow sufferers. “I used to think that every child has to take Desferal injection before they go to bed,” she said, referring to the medicine taken to remove excess iron in the blood accumulated through repeated blood transfusions. Thalassemia is an inherited form of anemia found chiefly among people of Mediterranean descent. The patient must receive blood transfusions intermittently.
■CRIME
Heroin smugglers arrested
The Investigation Bureau announced yesterday it had seized 31kg of heroin at Taichung Harbor from a container which came from Thailand. Investigators said the seizure was the largest quantity of smuggled drugs they had confiscated this year, with an estimated street value of NT$100 million (US$3.28 million). Taichung customs officials said they suspected that several heroin bricks were hidden in two teak closets imported from Thailand, but did not take action until three suspects — Lin Chin-yi, 33; Shu Wei-chun, 30; and Kuo Hsiu-fang, 55 — came to pick up the furniture. The investigators arrested the three suspects when they tried to dismantle the furniture to get the heroin. Kuo is a vagrant who has a record of drug smuggling in the past. The investigators said that the drug trafficking ring from central Taiwan, which usually hires homeless people to transport heroin and uses pseudo companies to declare their imported goods at the customs office, had smuggled drugs into the country several times using the same method.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai