CULTURE
Artist wins wine label award
A Taiwanese artist based in Spain won the top prize in a design contest for red wine labels sponsored by Spanish winery Bodega Farina, according to the Taiwanese representative office in Madrid. Yang Lun (楊侖) won the top award in the El Primero 2012 competition, which drew a record 120 submissions from around the world, the office said in a press release. Yang’s prize-winning creation, Esculpir Lo Fluido, will become the label that will be affixed to 100,000 bottles of one of the bodega’s premium red wines, which will be shipped to countries around the world in November, the statement said. The 35-year-old artist was quoted as saying her “fluid sculpture” style of work conveys East Asian philosophy by blending Chinese painting skills with other East Asian aesthetic concepts. Her work will also be exhibited in 14 Spanish cities, including Madrid, San Sebastian, Valladolid, Salamanca and Murcia.
TRAVEL
No word on US visa waiver
Taiwan’s application to enter the US’ visa-waiver program is still being processed and there is no timeframe for its completion, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services David Donahue said on Tuesday. There have been no new developments in the processing of the application, he said after a meeting at a foreign policy think tank in Washington. However, since Taiwan was formally nominated by the US in December last year as a candidate for the program, everything has been on track, Donahue said. In January, US homeland security officials visited Taiwan to determine whether the nation met the requirements of the program. Last month, Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said Taiwan might gain admission to the program in October.
CRIME
India fines illegal workers
Eight Taiwanese men were released on Tuesday after a court in Himachal Pradesh, India, fined them for working illegally in the country and trespassing in restricted areas. They were convicted of a violation of India’s Foreigners Act and fined 10,000 rupees (US$180) each. The men, who entered India on tourist visas between early April and last month, left for New Delhi after the verdict, accompanied by two lawyers and a Taiwanese official. Prior to the court hearing, they had been held in detention for six days in the state’s Mandi District. The Taiwanese were arrested on June 12 during a police raid on a Tibetan community in the district’s Jogindernagar, where the eight men were working part-time at a house construction site.
ENVIRONMENT
CPC refinery on thin ice
The Greater Kaohsiung Government said it would monitor a refinery owned by state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan to ensure that it stops discharging wastewater on rainy days and that it might order it to suspend operations if it fails to stop the practice. CPC’s refinery in Kaohsiung has disregarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) punishment for discharging wastewater on rainy days and a subsequent censure by the Control Yuan, officials said. Last year, the EPA accused the refinery of illegally discharging wastewater containing carcinogens that might pollute the Houjin River (後勁溪) and earlier this year the Control Yuan censured the company, saying it had recorded 55 such offenses over the past three years. The repeated warnings seem to have fallen on deaf ears at the refinery as it continues to discharge wastewater on rainy days, claiming it is rainwater, officials said.
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