CRIME
Stanton meets MOJ boss
American Institute in Taiwan Director William Stanton said yesterday that Taiwan had made good progress in combating human trafficking. Before a closed-door meeting with Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) at the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Stanton told reporters that he appreciated the effort Taiwan was making in combatting sex trafficking. He also said the US and Taiwan could reach agreements on a number of judicial issues — including passport security and extradition of fugitives, before adding that he and Tseng were “old friends.” Stanton refused to comment on Taiwan’s execution of several death row prisoners earlier this year or whether the US would extradite white collar criminals such as former Rebar Group chairman Wang You-theng (王又曾), who fled to the US in 2007.
TRAVEL
MOTC launches sign contest
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday invited the public to submit examples of problematic bilingual signs to help improve travel for foreign visitors. People who upload photos of incorrect signs at railway stations, freeway service areas or national scenic areas administrated by the ministry to its Facebook page before the end of January will have the chance to win a Wii or an iPod, each worth more than NT$10,000, the ministry said. Many bilingual traffic signs are incorrect and can confuse visitors or otherwise inconvenience them, ministry officials said, who cited one sign that reads “Beware of missing foot,” instead of simply saying “Unstable footing.”
TRAVEL
Visa plan boosts UK visits
The UK’s inclusion of Taiwan in its visa-exemption scheme from March last year has led to a marked increase in the number of Taiwanese visitors, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. A total of 80,935 Taiwanese visited the UK last year, Department of European Affairs Director-General James Lee (李光章) said. That was a 56 percent increase over the 51,930 who visited in 2008, he said, citing statistics from the UK Border Agency. “The number of short-term visitors rose 107 percent rise from 2008 to 2009, and 150 percent — from 18,655 to 46,720 — if business travelers were differentiated from short-term visitors,” Lee said. Bilateral relations have also become closer since the UK granted visa-free privileges, he said. The number of short-term students heading to the UK also increased, from 1,940 in 2008 to 3,305 last year, he said.
CRIME
Baseball player still held
A Nicaraguan baseball player accused of sexual assault has not been bailed and remains at the Taichung Detention Center, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office said yesterday.
Gustavo Horacio Lopez came to Taiwan with his team for the Intercontinental Cup baseball tournament, which ended on Sunday. He has been accused of sexually assaulting a Taiwanese woman in a hotel on the evening of Oct. 26. He cannot afford the NT$200,000 bail and no one has come forward to pay the bond on his behalf, chief Prosecutor Wu Tso-yan (吳祚延) said. If the investigation is not closed and no one posts bail by the time Lopez’s initial detention period ends in next month, prosecutors could apply to keep Lopez behind bars for another two months.
HEALTH
Some Yogurt drinks fail
More than 10 percent of diluted yogurt drinks sold locally were found to be substandard, according to the Taipei County Public Health Bureau. Results of a test conducted by the bureau showed two of the 15 diluted yogurt drink brands were found to contain far fewer lactobacillus bacteria than the level set by the Department of Health (DOH). One of the two substandard products contained only 7,600 lactobacillus bacterium per gram — an extremely small amount compared with the 1 million lactobacillus bacterium per gram required by the DOH. Vendors throughout the county have been ordered to remove the items from their shelves, bureau officials said. Noting that manufacturers of the substandard products were located in Hsinchu County, the officials said they have informed the Hsinchu County Government of its test results and asked that the producers be ordered to make improvements within an appropriate period.
TRANSPORTATION
Gondola adds glass cars
Twenty cars equipped with transparent, crystal-like glass floors joined the Maokong Gondola service on Tuesday. The glass-floored cars, dubbed the “Eyes of Maokong Gondola,” allow passengers to better enjoy the scenery during the ride between the southern suburb of Muzha (木柵) and the mountainous Maokong (貓空) area, gondola operator Taipei Mass Rapid Transit Corp said. The cars were manufactured by Sigma, a subsidy of French company Poma, a world leader in building cable-driven lift systems, the Taipei-based company said. The Maokong Gondola, which has regularly maintained 129 cars in operation, has provided 7.58 million rides to tourists since it was inaugurated on July 4, 2007, despite a service hiatus of 18 months through March because of safety concerns.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
RSS