SOCIETY
Noodles mark Tsai victory
A restaurant in Kaohsiung is offering a discount on its trademark dish to celebrate the election of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as the nation’s first female president. The restaurant is to sell a bowl of big-bone noodles for NT$60 instead of its usual price of NT$90 until the end of this month. The owner, surnamed Huang (黃), said he initially planned to sell the noodles for NT$30, but changed his mind for fear of harming business for other restaurants. Huang said he set the price at NT$60 because Tsai is to turn 60 this year. He said Tsai’s victory represents women’s success and hopes that she can revitalize the sluggish economy after she assumes office. If well-received, the discount could be extended until the president-elect’s May 20 inauguration, Huang said.
POLITICS
Runner-up demands recount
DPP legislative candidate Hsu Ching-wen (徐景文) has filed for a vote recount with the Taoyuan District Court after losing an electoral race in the city with a margin of less than 0.25 percent. A judge yesterday seized the ballots and poll books at 173 voting stations in the city’s third electoral district and ordered police to guard them around the clock. Hsu made the request on Monday after losing to Apollo Chen (陳學聖) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Hsu received 77,120 votes, or 44.4896 percent, compared with Chen’s 77,510 votes, or 44.7146 percent. According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a recount can be requested if the difference between two candidates is less than 0.3 percent. The law stipulates that once an appeal for a vote recount is made, the results should be announced within 20 days.
CULTURE
Museum raises visitor quota
The National Palace Museum Southern Branch in Chiayi County has increased its daily visitor quota for next month from 1,750 to 5,000 to meet growing demand. The museum opened late last year on a trial basis. Under the original plan, it was intended to accept 1,000 free visits per day until the end of its trial run on March 31. The quota was then increased to 1,750 per day due to rising demand to tour the new museum, which was designed by architect Kris Yao (姚仁喜), the museum said. As the winter break for students and the Lunar New Year holiday are approaching, the museum decided to further raise the daily quota to 5,000 for next month, it said. Individuals or tour groups planning to visit the southern branch must book permits online in advance at the museum’s official Web site, with registration for visits next month to start today.
CRIME
Police search for slasher
Police are still trying to track down a Vietnamese migrant worker who allegedly slashed four of his compatriots with a knife in Nantou County over the weekend. The Nantou Precinct on Monday said that the four foreign workers were gathering at a Vietnamese eatery at about 5pm on Sunday when about seven or eight foreign workers rushed in and one of them slashed the four with a knife. The suspect and his friends fled the scene in two vehicles. The four injured Vietnamese were rushed to a hospital and their situation was stable. The most seriously injured was a worker who had two fingers cut off. Two of the injured people checked out of the hospital on Monday, while the other two remained hospitalized.They said that they did not know the suspect or why they were targeted.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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