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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ SOCIETY

Wu Shu-jen breaks foot

Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) suffered a broken foot late last month, her daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) said yesterday. Chen, a dentist, told reporters that her wheelchair-bound mother was suffering from osteoporosis because of a lack of exercise, adding that the loss of bone mass may have been a factor in her mother’s bone fracture. Asked whether her orthopedist husband, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), had personally attended to his mother-in-law’s broken foot, Chen said the orthopedic surgeons at National Taiwan University Hospital had provided good care to her mother and that there was no need to summon Chao from Tainan. Wu has been confined to a wheelchair since 1985 after she was run over by a truck while on a post-campaign tour of Tainan County with her husband, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

■ SCIENCE

Joint research topics chosen

The National Science Council (NSC) and France’s Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR) have selected seven projects out of 41 proposals on which the two bodies will cooperate this year, NSC officials said yesterday. The two institutions, which have been cooperating since last year, agreed that they would select projects from both countries every year to be sponsored by the NSC-ANR research fund. Officials who participated in their annual bilateral meeting in Paris said that of the seven projects, two were chosen from the natural sciences, one from the engineering sciences, three from biological sciences and one from the humanities. Prior to the selection meeting, NSC Minister Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) said France was the nation’s second-largest partner in scientific research, after the US.



■ TRANSPORTATION

County tests LED bus signs

The Taipei County Government launched smart bus-stop signs on a trial basis on Monday. The new signs, which use light-emitting diodes (LEDs), will display the routes of four bus lines. They also indicate the direction of the buses, the number of stops and the estimated time until arrival. During the trial period, the new signs will be placed at the exits of MRT stations and at hospitals, traffic officials said, adding that 15 signs were scheduled to be set up by the end of this year. If the results are good, the smart signs will be installed around the county. Vendor representative Lin Chin-cheng (林欽誠) said the signs, which are now common in Europe and the US, cost about NT$200,000 each and can be reconfigured to provide information on up to 20 lines.



■ POLITICS

Taipei mayor more popular

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) performance approval rating has reached 55 percent, a survey released yesterday by the municipal government’s Research Development and Evaluation Commission showed. The mayor’s approval rating was 1 percentage point higher than in a similar survey conducted by the commission at the end of last year. Hau assumed office as Taipei mayor in late December 2006. In the survey, conducted from last Tuesday until Monday among Taipei residents aged 20 and over, 25 percent of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with Hau’s performance. The survey also found that 64 percent of Taipei residents feel the quality of life in the city is good, marking a drop of 6 percentage points from late last year. A total of 829 valid samples were collected in the survey, which is said to have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

■ MUSIC

F.I.R. delights passengers

Pop band F.I.R. (飛兒樂團) delighted passengers at Singapore’s Changi Airport yesterday with a special appearance prior to heading to China. The Taiwanese trio gave away giant autographed posters and answered questions in the departure-transit mall. The initials stand for the first names of the three — female vocalist Faye Zhan (詹雯婷), keyboard player Ian Chen (陳建寧) and guitarist Real Huang (黃漢青). The band initially caught the attention of Asian audiences in 2004 with their hit Lydia, the theme song for the Taiwanese drama Outsiders.

■ CULTURE

Canada to hold Taiwan fest

The 19th annual Taiwan Fest in Canada will kick off next month featuring some of Taiwan’s award-winning chefs and performances by a number of the country’s most popular musicians, the Council of Cultural Affairs said yesterday. In collaboration with the Harbourfront Center and Formosa Cultural Society of Ontario, the Toronto festivity will take place from Aug. 22 to Aug. 24. In Vancouver, the three-day events will be from Aug. 30 to Sep. 1, sponsored by the Taiwan Canadian Cultural Society.

■ HEALTH

First native case of dengue

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced yesterday this summer’s first case of indigenous dengue fever. The announcement came after the CDC confirmed that a male in Kao-hsiung City had contracted the mosquito-borne disease but had not traveled abroad. The man developed typical dengue fever symptoms as well as muscle soreness and aches on July 1, but did not seek medical treatment for two days, CDC Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said.
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