■ AGRICULTURE
COA checks for salmonella
The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said it would step up checks for salmonella after wire services recently reported that children could be infected with salmonella by touching pet food. The council’s Department of Animal Industry said it had been conducting regular inspections of pet food since the Pedigree dog food scare in 2004. However, most of the inspections have focused on checking for aflatoxin, melamine and heavy metal content, which pose a more serious health threat to pets than salmonella, the department said. Salmonella contamination is usually found in products before they are packaged, it said, adding that in many countries, checks for salmonella are conducted by manufacturers. However, to reassure pet owners, the department will use some of its aflatoxin-testing funds for carrying out salmonella testing, it said.
■ SOCIETY
Man ‘marries’ goddess
A man out of luck in earthly love has married a goddess after she ordered him to do so in a dream, a Chinese Television System (CTS) report said yesterday. The man, surnamed Lin, claimed the Lotus Fairy, a Taoist deity, started coming to him in his sleep after he went to her temple to seek her blessing following a series of failed relationships, CTS said. The goddess soon instructed Lin to marry her and to comply, the 40-year-old held a “wedding ceremony” in which a young woman holding a statue of the goddess stood in for the bride, the report said. Since the wedding, Lin has moved the statue to his home in central Taiwan to worship her and claimed that his “wife” has protected him from both illnesses and accidents, the report said.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Taipower fine overturned
The Taipei High Administrative Court on Tuesday ruled that Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) did not have to pay a fine imposed by the Taipei County Environmental Protection Bureau for failing to complete a nuclear waste storage project on time. The ruling said the bureau did not have right of jurisdiction to impose a NT$540 million (US$16.8 million) fine on Taipower. The bureau had imposed a series of fines on Taipower between 2007 and 2008 for allegedly violating the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) and not submitting a contingency plan regarding the delay of the project, which was originally scheduled to be completed in 2006. The bureau can appeal the court’s decision.
■ CRIME
Man nabbed over road paint
The Taipei City Police Department’s criminal investigation corps yesterday said they had arrested a man who allegedly defaced roads by pouring and spreading white paint on them. Shen Lai-jing (沈賴敬), a 50-year-old carpenter, was arrested at his residence late on Tuesday night. Shen, who is suspected of defacing newly asphalted roads at 11 locations, only admitted to doing so at one location, but said it was not intentional. He said he had accidentally kicked off barrel of paint onboard his scooter while driving. “He said it was an accident and that no politics was involved. However, prosecutors will do more questioning and keep investigating,” corps deputy Lee Wen-chang (李文章) said. Shen was charged with vandalism, endangering public safety and obstructing the work of public servants. The city government last year launched a seven-year program to fix and repave the city’s major boulevards. Lee said fixing the damage caused by the paint at the 11 locations would cost the city NT$880,000.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard