ENTERTAINMENT
Envoy going to Hollywood
Representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) has been invited to attend the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday in Hollywood. It is the first time an ambassador-level official from Taiwan has received an invitation for the annual ceremony, said Lee Tai-kuai (李大塊), head of the press division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles. The decision to invite Yuan followed a visit to Taiwan last year by Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for the 47th Golden Horse Awards — the Taiwanese equivalent of the Oscars. Davis was impressed by Taiwan’s booming film industry, Lee said. Also invited are senior film critic Wen Tien-hsiang, a member of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival executive committee, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓), who served as chairman of the Motion Picture and Drama Association, the main organizer of the Asia Pacific Film Festival in Taipei last December.
FOOD
Tainted seafood rejected
Since the start of the year, four shipments of imported seafood and seafood products have been intercepted and rejected because of high amounts of residual formaldehyde. The organic compound can be added to seafood to keep it fresh. The rejected shipments comprised cuttlefish from Japan that had residual formaldehyde up to 55 parts per million (ppm), and frozen seafood products from Vietnam, the Philippines and China that had 39ppm, 37ppm and 22.9ppm respectively. By law foodstuffs should not contain any formaldehyde. Chiang Shou-shan (江守山), a nephrologist at Shin-Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, said formaldehyde is thought to be linked to certain types of cancer.
SPORT
Club gears up for tourney
A Taoyuan country club is sparing no expense in preparing for Taiwan’s first LPGA tournament later this year. “We’re ready to stage the best-ever tournament to market Taiwan and to welcome new stars in the sport,” Sunrise Golf and Country Club chairman Hsu Tien-ya (許典雅) said yesterday. Hsu made his comments as LPGA official Jim Haley paid a second visit to the club and praised Hsu’s efforts. Hsu said NT$200 million (US$6.72 million) will be spent on extensive renovations to the club, guest rooms and courses. Haley, who visited the club in October, said he did not take a good look at it last time as he was completing his schedule in a hurry, but nevertheless praised the improvements that have been made. The Taiwan Open will see 80 players competing from Oct. 20 to Oct. 23.
SOCIETY
Marriage law changed
The Executive Yuan yesterday passed an amendment to articles 973 and 980 of the Civil Code to bring the minimum ages at which men and women can be engaged and get married into line with each other. The minimum ages for engagement and marriage for men and women were set at 15 and 16 for women, and 17 and 18 for men. The amendment passed yesterday raises the age limit for women to the same as that for men. In a comment, the Ministry of Justice said the reason for the amendment was that the regulations in the Civil Code do not comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
TRAVEL
Fuel surcharges to rise
Fuel surcharges for air travel are expected to rise next month as political turmoil spreads in the Middle East and North Africa, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said yesterday. The fees, which apply to all departing passengers, have more than doubled over the past two years, reaching NT$670 per passenger for a short-haul flight and NT$1,742 for a long-haul flight this month. In 2009, the surcharges were NT$298 and NT$774 respectively.
SOCIETY
Tribal holidays recognized
As of yesterday, Aborigines across the country are able to take days off on officially recognized traditional tribal holidays, the Council of Indigenous Peoples said. In a statement, the council said all Aborigines, “whether in the military, a public servant, a laborer or a student, may take a traditional tribal holiday off” as long as they have a household registration document or other document that proves their ethnic identity. “This is a big step forward in our attempt to promote cultural diversity,” Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) said.
EMPLOYMENT
Science jobs to grow
The nation’s three major science parks are expected to offer 40,000 more jobs over the next three years as their employee numbers reached another new high last month, the National Science Council said. Among the job openings, 7,000 will be offered by the Hsinchu Science Park, 18,000 to 20,000 by the Southern Taiwan Science Park and 16,000 by the Central Taiwan Science Park, the council said. The parks had a total of 221,641 workers as of the end of last month, breaking December’s record of 219,133, the council said
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
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
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