■POLITICS
Congress ties established
The legislature established amity associations with members of the Mongolian and Danish congresses yesterday. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who heads both of the associations, said the objective of the organizations was to urge the government to increase cultural exchanges with the two nations. Legislators are scheduled to visit Mongolia during the legislature’s upcoming recess, she said. The current legislative session, originally slated to go into recess today, will be extended until next Tuesday.
■TECHNOLOGY
Taiwanese Web less risky
Taiwan’s Web domain was ranked among the world’s least risky last year in a list topped by Japan and Australia, according to an annual report released by US-based security technology company McAfee. Also on the list were Canada, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico and most nations in Europe and South America. McAfee uses a technology, SiteAdvisor, to test Web sites for browser exploitation, phishing, excessive pop-ups and malicious downloads and analysis. The report was produced after analyzing more than 27 million Web sites and 104 top-level domains. It revealed that Africa’s Cameroon was the Web’s riskiest domain last year, followed by China and Samoa. The report said Cameroon’s extension .cm was easily exploited by unscrupulous users because it was similar to the popular extension .com. The report also showed a rapid deterioration in Singapore’s domain security, with the country ranked as the world’s 10th-riskiest domain last year, up from 67th the previous year, mainly because of Chinese pharmacy spam sites. Hong Kong was the riskiest domain in 2008.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all