WEATHER
Wu to give rebuilding update
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is scheduled to give an international press conference on Monday next week on the progress of reconstruction work in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot. Morakot hit Taiwan on Aug. 8, 2009, leaving 724 people dead or missing. At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Wu pushed government agencies to expedite work on repairing bridges and roads, or building new ones, in rural and mountainous areas battered by the typhoon. As the typhoon season is now in full swing with another storm approaching, Wu called on the Ministry of the Interior and local governments to make sure evacuation and settlement plans are in place, and that rescuers and voluntary workers organized by the Council of Agriculture are fully prepared.
TRAVEL
Caution urged over Xinjiang
Travelers to Xinjiang should exercise extreme caution because the region has experienced a new outbreak of violence in recent days, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. Citing Chinese media reports, the council said in a statement that on Saturday, two bombs shook the streets of Kashgar. An hour after the blasts, two attackers hijacked a truck on a nearby street, killed its driver and then drove it into a crowd of pedestrians. The attackers then got out of the truck and began stabbing passers-by. The incident left seven people dead and 28 injured. Less than 24 hours later, a larger group of men carried out a second attack in which six people were killed and 28 injured. The council advised Taiwanese intending to travel to the region to be mindful of news updates and their own safety.
CRIME
Four vendors indicted
Four people were indicted on Wednesday by the Miaoli District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of violating the Health Food Control Act (健康食品管理法) after they were allegedly found selling fake health foods and running TV ads to attract customers. Lin Li-chia (林李嘉), chief prosecutor at the office, said those indicted each owned a company selling health foods. They were found to be selling eight kinds of unregistered and uncertified products between October 2009 and September last year, making more that NT$700 million (US$24.24 million) off at least 100,000 unsuspecting victims, Lin said. Prosecutors discovered that consumers reported a variety of symptoms after consuming the products, such as constant diarrhea, headaches and vomiting.
MEDIA
GIO denies Wu involvement
Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Philip Yang (楊永明) yesterday denied a Democratic Progressive Party allegation that he forced the Central News Agency (CNA) to change a story headline on Wednesday regarding Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) comments on the alleged threat that led taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) to withdraw an appeal against a controversial ruling. Yang said he contacted CNA because his staffers found the original headline to be inconsistent with Wu’s comments and did not reflect the content of the report. It is the GIO’s duty to ask the press to run corrections when there is incorrect news coverage about the government, he said. The headline initially read: “Wu admits he was aware ahead of time of Yang [Shu-chun]’s announcement to drop the appeal.” It was later changed to: “Wu fully supports Yang [Shu-chun] and the government has not changed its position on the matter.”
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