■Weather
Cold front to hit today
Another cold front is set to arrive in Taiwan today, bringing temperatures down once again, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). Except for some small showers in the northeastern part of the country, Taiwan saw sunny weather yesterday with sunlight raising temperatures by two to three degrees. Daytime temperatures yesterday were above 20°C. Temperatures will begin to fall again this afternoon. The cold front will be at its strongest in the early hours of tomorrow, according to the CWB, with temperatures projected to be around 10°C for the northern half of Taiwan. Temperatures will rise again on Thursday, the CWB said.
■ Media
Sophie Wang starts reporting
After having been barred from entering the Legislative Yuan, headline-maker Sophie Wang (王筱嬋) started her new job as a TV reporter covering news in the lawmaking body yesterday. As a former soap-opera actress and former aide to then DPP lawmaker Cheng Yu-cheng (鄭余鎮), Wang landed a job at Global TV to cover legislative news. Some media outlets regarded her employment as a farcical tactic to rescue the news network's poor ratings and questioned Wang's professional credentials, local Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday. Responding to the mounting criticisms and doubts, program section chief at Global TV Chien Chih-hai (簡志海) reiterated that the company will "give suitable treatment" to the intern reporter if she fails to do a good job or tries to abuse her capacity as a reporter. Wang is notorious for a string of love affairs, first with KMT Legislator John Chang (章孝嚴) and later with Cheng Yu-cheng, who voluntarily left the DPP to become an independent lawmaker after the party decided to discipline him.
■ Train tickets
Holiday bookings open
People will be able to book tickets for east-bound train trips during the Lunar New Year holidays starting 6am today, according to the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA, 台灣鐵路管理局) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. West-bound tickets will be available from Thursday. The TRA said passengers should pick up their tickets at train stations or post offices within five days after booking them. If the departure date is less than five days after the booking date, they should pick up their tickets at least one day before the departure date.
■ Legislation
Labor-law changes passed
The Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Labor Insurance Law (勞保條例) yesterday. The amendments were proposed by the PFP and DPP legislative caucuses and will provide NT$10 billion for workers to apply for low-interest loans. According to the amendments, workers covered by the labor insurance scheme for more than 15 years are eligible to apply for a maximum loan of NT$200,000 at an interest rate of no more than 3.75 percent. PFP Legislator Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官), in charge of the negotiations, said it is estimated that 2.3 million workers can benefit from the bill. He also expressed his hope that the Council of Labor Affairs (勞委會) can implement the measure before the Lunar New Year, which starts Feb. 1 this year. Meanwhile, Lin appealed to the government to assist the 4 percent of people who are not covered by the National Health Insurance (全民健保) program.
Agencies
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS