■ HEALTH
Cabinet mulling change
The Cabinet will reshuffle the members of a task force charged with designing a long-term care system for senior citizens next month to make sure that the system fits the administration’s plans, a Cabinet official said yesterday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity as she was not authorized to speak to the press, said that the sitting members of the task force appointed by the former Democratic Progressive Party government would leave their post when their one-year term expires in the middle of next month. The official added that several experts from the private sector who have been commissioned by the government have deliberated about 10 proposals, with a final proposal expected to be drafted in July at the earliest. She said the Cabinet would review and submit a proposal to the legislature by October.
■ GOVERNMENT
Hakka act in the works
The Council for Hakka Affairs has finished a draft of the long-planned Hakka Basic Act and will submit it to the Cabinet for review by the end of this month, council Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) told the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday. “Hopefully, the bill will be sent to the legislature for review before this legislative session ends [in June],” he told the meeting. Once it becomes law, the act will give semi-official status to the Hakka language in townships where Hakka are the majority, requiring 100 percent accessibility of the language in all public functions in specific regions. The council will also push for the establishment of Hakka translation services at all government offices and a nationwide Hakka radio station.
■ CRIME
Stickers discourage theft
The Kaohsiung City Police Bureau said yesterday it had created stickers with serial numbers for bicycles to discourage bicycle theft. Lin Chi-huang (林季璜), director of a police station in Kaohsiung, said bike owners can put the stickers on their bikes and then apply clear lacquer on the stickers so that thieves would not be able to remove the identification stickers. The bureau would file the personal information of the bike owners and the serial number of the bikes when they apply for the stickers, Lin said. The bureau will offer the stickers free along the city’s Love River next month, Lin said, adding that bike owners would only have to show their ID cards and proof of purchase.
■ LEISURE
Giant chief on bike tour
The chairman and co-founder of Giant Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest bicycle maker, said on Tuesday he would set off on May 9 for a cycling tour from Beijing to Shanghai. Making the announcement at the opening of the 2009 Taipei International Cycle Show at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Nangang Exhibition Hall, King Liu (劉金標) said he expected to complete the 1,688km trip in 20 days. “I am prepared,” he said at the trade show while displaying a limited edition carbon-fiber road bicycle he designed. However, Liu said that at the age of 75, it would be hard for him to ride the 80km per day needed to complete the journey in the alloted time. Liu completed a 927km ride around Taiwan in 17 days in 2007. He said he hoped that the personal challenge would help promote friendship and cycling exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
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