■ EDUCATION
NCCU issues Chuang contract
National Chengchi University (NCCU) yesterday issued a temporary teaching contract to former Ministry of Education (MOE) secretary-general Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮) because of the university’s inability to convene an extraordinary meeting to review Chuang’s contract before the spring semester ended yesterday. NCCU president Wu Si-hua (吳思華) approved Chuang’s temporary contract and scheduled a meeting on Sept. 10 to decide whether to renew Chuang’s contract as assistant professor at the Department of Public Administration. The MOE on July 16 returned NCCU’s previous resolution not to renew Chuang’s contract because the article cited by the university in its decision was flawed as it would also bar Chuang from teaching in other universities. Chuang sparked controversy during the presidential election campaign in March when he used a profanity to imply that the late father of then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had a salacious relationship with his goddaughter.
■ TOURISM
New ticket system planned
To save visitors to the Maokong Gondola from waiting in line for hours, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp is implementing a new ticketing system on weekends and holidays starting tomorrow. Visitors can draw number slips at Maokong’s Taipei Zoo Station and do not need to return to the station to take the gondola until the designated time printed on the slip, the company said. The gondola, a cable car system between Taipei Zoo and the tea-drinking center of Maokong (貓空) in the mountains, has become one of the most popular destinations in Taipei City since it was launched last year. The average wait time for visitors to get on the gondola is one to two hours during the weekends and holidays, the company said. The new measure would save visitors from having to wait in line, the company said.
■ POLITICS
Chen Chu denies report
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) dismissed a Chinese-language United Daily News report that said former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had recommended Democratic Progressive Party Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) to take over Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Chiu Tai-san’s (邱太三) position after Chiu reportedly expressed his intention to resign. Shih Cheh (史哲), head of the city’s Department of Information, issued a press release for Chen Chu, who is currently leading a tourism delegation to Singapore. The press release said that the mayor had never received any direct or indirect suggestion from the former president regarding personnel recruitment. “The mayor always recruits the city government’s staff and places the interests of the city’s residents over other concerns,” the release said.
■ AGRICULTURE
Olympians to receive fruit
Air Macau will fly 10 tonnes of Taiwanese fruit free of charge to the Beijing Olympics for the athletes, reporters and sports officials, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported yesterday. Air Macau manager David Fei was quoted by CNA as saying that Air Macau began the shipments yesterday and would continue until the end of the Games. Four kinds of Taiwanese fruit — pineapple, star fruit, guava and mango — were chosen by the organizers as some of the fruit to be served to the athletes during the Games, which start next Friday.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
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