SAFETY
Freighter crew rescued
A Thailand-flagged freighter ran aground in shallow waters off Mudou islet (目斗) in Penghu County early yesterday because of strong winds, but all of the ship’s crewmembers are safe, the Ministry of the Interior said. The 16 crewmembers were rescued from the battered vessel — the Oberon — which ran aground 1 nautical mile (1.85km) north of Mudou islet, according to the rescue team dispatched by the ministry. The ship was reportedly taking in water. The ministry did not say whether the ship, which was carrying liquefied petroleum gas, might spill its cargo and threaten the environment. Five helicopters were dispatched at 6:33am on the rescue mission and brought the crewmembers to safety at the county capital of Makung (馬公), the rescue team said. Winds as high as 88kph in the area complicated the rescue mission, the rescuers said.
GOVERNMENT
Men dominate civil service
Women hold a much smaller proportion of high-level government posts, accounting for about a quarter of positions, according to recently released figures. Only 26.9 percent of senior posts were held by women, compared with 49 percent in mid-level positions and 56 percent in low-ranked positions, according to Civil Service Ministry statistics. Of the 9,704 high-level posts held last year, 2,610 were occupied by women, compared with 7,094 held by men, the statistics showed.
COMMUNICATIONS
Public Wi-Fi access to widen
More public places in Taipei will have free wireless Internet access starting in May, the city government said yesterday. People will be able to use wireless Internet for free on more than 100 roads and streets in Taipei, up from 39 main roads at present, the city’s Department of Information Technology said. The new metro line to Xinzhuang and large parks such as Daan Forest Park will also be covered. The network’s connection speed will also be upgraded from the current 512 kilobits per second to as fast as 10 megabits per second, which will allow more multimedia sites to become accessible and enable users to watch videos on YouTube, the department said.
HEALTH
Model predicts cancer
A Taiwanese-led research team has successfully devised a new prediction model to calculate the likelihood of hepatitis C patients developing liver cancer, the team leader said yesterday. The model incorporates indicators such as age, the liver function indexes ALT and AST, hepatitis C virus RNA in serum, cirrhosis and the genotype of the virus, Academia Sinica vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said at a session of the Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver held in Taipei. Chen said the serum data was particularly important in predicting the chances of developing liver cancer. The model, which can predict a result with 80 percent accuracy, assigns a score of 0 to 25 to analyze each case. The higher the score, the higher the likelihood of liver cancer, Chen said. Hepatitis B and C viruses are the main causes of liver cancer in Taiwan, Chen said, with 20 percent to 25 percent of liver cancer cases triggered by the hepatitis C virus and 70 percent to 75 percent by the hepatitis B virus. Close to 3 million people in Taiwan carry the hepatitis B virus, while about 600,000 carry the hepatitis C virus, the Department of Health says.
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