■ POLITICS
Lee rebuts Chen comment
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) rebutted an accusation by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that Lee was involved in money laundering. Lee was responding to remarks by Chen that the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office was investigating an NT$1.6 billion (US$49 million) money laundering case that involved Lee. “I welcome any investigation, and please make it quick,” Lee told reporters, adding that Chen’s statement was false, but that he “would not bother to argue with Chen.” Lee went on to say that if Chen hoped to get a milder penalty for allegedly laundering money by saying Lee had done the same thing, “he would only make himself a laughing stock.”
■ ECONOMY
Ministry promotes hotline
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday encouraged people facing unexpected financial difficulties and other problems as a result of the ailing economy to call the “1957 national welfare hotline” for help. The central government, in collaboration with local governments, set up the hotline in November 2006 to help people with financial problems. The hotline offers access to legal counseling and other services. So far this year, an average of 1,000 to 1,990 calls per month were made to the hotline, the ministry said. Many people have overcome their difficulties with the help of the hotline, the ministry said.
■ SOCIETY
Man overdoses in taxi
A taxi driver drove passengers around for a day with a dead friend sitting in the front seat, TVBS reported on Saturday. TVBS said the taxi driver, identified only as Wang, picked up a friend, Kuo Chun-chieh (郭俊賢), in Changhua County at about 10pm on Wednesday. Kuo, 35, was drunk and asked Wang to drive him to Lugang (鹿港) to see a friend. At the friend’s home, Kuo picked up a parcel, got back into the taxi, and asked Wang to drive him to Taichung City. Sitting in the front seat beside the driver, Kuo reportedly injected himself in the arm with a drug and passed out. TVBS said that Wang, believing Kuo was “asleep,” drove the taxi home and left Kuo inside. The next morning, seeing that Kuo had not stirred, Wang reportedly drove his taxi around and picked up several passengers during the day with Kuo slumped in the front seat, believing he was still sleeping. It was not until about 10pm on Thursday that Wang reportedly realized that Kuo was dead and drove to a police station. An autopsy showed on Friday that Kuo had died of a drug overdose. However, police said they found it difficult to believe that Wang did not realize earlier that Kuo had died.
■ COMMUNICATION
Cables sustain damage
Breaks in three submarine cables under the Mediterranean Sea, possibly caused by a ship’s anchor, have disrupted Internet and international telephone services in parts of the Middle East and as far as Taiwan, officials said on Saturday. A ship carrying a submarine repair robot was on its way to the site between Sicily and Tunisia on Saturday, with work expected to take until the end of the year, a spokesman for ship owner and telecom operator France Telecom said. The cables, owned by various consortiums, were damaged on Friday. “There are two theories: either the anchor of a ship, which could have displaced them ... or an earthquake. We think it’s the first theory,” spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard said. The damage to the SEA-ME-WE3, SEA-ME-WE4 and FLAG cables caused varying degrees of disruption from Zambia to India and Taiwan.
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
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
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