CRIME
DPP offices burglarized
A burglar broke into the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, stealing NT$90,000, but documents and equipment were left intact, the party said in a statement yesterday. Surveillance footage showed that a man broke into the eighth floor of the building and was inside for about 10 minutes before leaving without taking any files, computers or equipment, the DPP said. The party reported the incident to the police, who are investigating it, according to the statement. The DPP headquarters is in the Huashan Business Building on 30 Beiping E Road. Local media later yesterday reported that the suspect is a South Korean who is listed by Interpol as a thief.
GOVERNMENT
MOI to relax firefighter rules
The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is to relax regulations on the recruitment of firefighters in an effort to increase the number of new recruits, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The revised rules would allow people older than 20 who have not spent time in prison in the past 10 years to apply as volunteer firefighters, regardless of their household registration address, the ministry said. Current regulations stipulate that people older than 20 who have not served time in prison or participated in court-ordered educational programs must reside at the address listed in their household registration to become volunteer firefighters.
SOCIETY
Nun receives citizenship
Philippine Catholic nun O Anuna, who has devoted almost half of her life to taking care of children with disabilities in Taiwan, yesterday officially became a Taiwanese citizen. “I am most joyful when with the children, and I am happy to be able to stay in Taiwan forever,” the 58-year-old sister said after receiving her Republic of China identification card from Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠). Despite the challenges in taking care of children with disabilities she has encountered over the past 27 years, Anuna said that she has enjoyed the process, adding that her decision to become a Taiwanese citizen has also gained the support of her family. That she was given an ROC identification card shows that her love for the children has been appreciated, she said. Born in the Philippines in 1959, Anuna arrived in Taiwan in 1990 to serve at Sacred Heart Home, a charitable Catholic organization in Chiayi’s Dongshih Township (東石) that is dedicated to caring for individuals with moderate or severe disabilities.
TRANSPORTATION
Airport riders to pass 10m
Ridership on the Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line is expected to surpass 10 million by the end of the month, Taoyuan Metro Corp chairman Liu Kun-yi (劉坤億) said on Wednesday. The railway system had carried 8.6 million passengers as of the end of last month, about five months after it started commercial operations, Liu said. The line carries 54,000 passengers per day, with Taipei Main Station, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Airport Terminal 1, Airport Terminal 2 and Taoyuan High Speed Rail Station being the busiest stations, company statistics showed. The five stations account for 68 percent of total passengers using the line, with Taipei Main Station accounting for 2.25 million rides, or 26.1 percent, over the past five months. Taoyuan’s Hengshan and and Singnan stations are the least used, Liu said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
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