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Taiwan News Quick Take

■POLITICS

Chang tapped for defense

Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chang Lang-jen (張良任) has been tapped to be the vice minister of national defense, the council said yesterday. Vice Chairman Liu Teh-hsun (劉德勳) said yesterday was Chang’s last day at the council and he would start his new job today. However, Liu said the public should wait for the Ministry of National Defense to make the announcement official. There has been widespread speculation that Liu would also be moving on, but he said that he knew nothing about such plans and was trying to find out himself. Chang and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) studied at Harvard together and Chang served at the council when it was established in 1991. He became Straits Exchange Foundation deputy secretary-general in 1996 before moving to Hong Kong in 2001 to head the Chung Hwa Travel Service, the nation’s representative office in the territory. Chang was appointed one of the council’s three vice chairmen when Ma took office in May.



■CULTURE

Indigenous market to open

Taipei City’s Indigenous People’s Commission said the Naruwan Indigenous People’s Market, the first market to specialize in Taiwanese indigenous products, would open tomorrow. The mall, located at the intersection of Guangzhou Street and Huanhe South Road, will open at 11am on Saturday. It will offer handicrafts, agricultural products and food and beverages, including tea from Thao farms on Alishan and dishes of the Atayal tribe such as Bamboo tube rice with betel nut flower. Indigenous artists and singers will also stage performances at the mall on Saturday and Sunday nights. The mall will be open Monday through Friday from 4pm to 10pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 10pm.



■DIPLOMACY

Wang headed back to Japan

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who only returned from a trip to Japan two weeks ago, said yesterday that he would leave for Japan again to meet former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. “I’m going to deliver a speech at a conference on future relations between the US, Taiwan and Japan. Former prime minister Shinzo Abe will have lunch with me,” Wang told reporters at the legislature. But he said he didn’t know if he would meet again with Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Taro Aso, a possible successor to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Wang’s last trip was to explain President Ma ‘s stance on Taipei-Tokyo ties.



■SOCIETY

Motorcyclists at higher risk

Nearly 60 percent of road fatalities in 2006 and last year were motorcyclists, statistics released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Road Safety Supervisory Committee show. In 2006, 3,140 people died in traffic accidents on public roads, with 58.92 percent (1,850) of them motorcyclists. Traffic accidents took 7,573 lives last year, including 1,536 motorcyclists who accounted for 59.7 percent of fatalities. In 2005 there were 2,894 traffic fatalities, with 1,566 of the victims being motorbike riders. The committee said it would review the durability and use of motorcycle helmets on the market because 62.2 percent of the motorcyclists who died in accidents in the last three years were wearing helmets. Of the 432,557 accidents involving motorcycles between 2005 and last year, the fatality rate for people wearing helmets was 0.65 percent, compared with a fatality rate of 5.13 percent for those not wearing helmets, the committee said.


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