■ Travel
Taiwanese hurt in Hawaii
A car collided with a tour minibus carrying American and Taiwanese tourists on a rain-slick highway leading to the summit of Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, killing four people and injuring a dozen others, police said. Witnesses told police the car was heading downhill on Wednesday toward Hilo when it went out of control and crossed the centerline of the two-lane Volcano Highway before being broadsided by the oncoming minibus. The dead were Hawaii residents. A dozen passengers from the minibus were treated for minor injuries before being released from Hilo Medical Center. The minibus was making its way up the volcano to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
■ Politics
Hsu fasts over election
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) has launched a hunger strike to protest the election results. Hsu said he stopped eating Wednesday night over what he claimed was an "unfair" election. Hsu left the DPP in 1999 after his failure to win its nomination for the 2000 presidential election. He ran as an independent candidate in that election. Hsu, believed to be an influential leader of the Hakka, has thrown his weight behind the opposition since his split from the DPP. Hsu was DPP chairman between 1991 and 1993 and again between 1996 and 1998.
■ Politics
Taipei residents petition Yu
The Society for the Concern for the Rights and Interests of Taipei Residents (台北市民權益關懷協會) yesterday sent a petition to Premier Yu Shyi-kun requesting that the government compensate stock investors for their losses and restore order to the daily lives of Taipei residents. The petition said the post-election pan-blue demonstration and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) refusal to halt the demonstration were "manmade factors" causing the stock market to fall by 455 points, or over NT$1 trillion, last Monday, resulting in major losses for investors.The petition said the market's fall was the result of officials neglecting their duty, which hurt the interests of the public, and therefore meets the requirements stipulated in Article 2 of the State Compensation Act (國家賠償法). The petition demanded the government compensate investors for their losses. It also demanded that authorities abide by Article 22 of the Constitution and restore the city environment and respect and guarantee the rights and interests of Taipei residents.
■ Labor Affairs
Taipei prints handbook
Taipei City Government's Bureau of Labor Affairs is providing bilingual handbooks to help the more than 20,000 foreign caregivers in the city in taking care of seriously ill patients. Labor officials said that the House Maid Care Handbook is available in three different versions -- Chinese-English, Chinese-Vietnamese and Chinese-Indonesian. There are more than 32,000 foreign laborers in Taipei, of which nearly 80 percent are caregivers, the officials said. The bureau asked the Cheng Shin Rehabilitation Medical Center and its volunteer team to provide information on how to provide basic care, such as extract mucus, clean a body and train to defecate alone. Those interested in obtaining a handbook can go to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs' consultation center for foreign laborers (No. 2, Lane 101, Sec. 2, Xinsheng North Road), or call 2564-3157 or 2564-2546 for more information.
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
Traffic controls are to be in place in Taipei starting tonight, police said, as rallies supporting recall efforts targeting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers as well as a rally organized by the KMT opposing the recall campaigns are to take place tomorrow. Traffic controls are to be in place on City Hall Road starting from 10pm tonight and on Jinan Road Section 1 starting from 8am tomorrow, police said. Recall campaign groups in Taipei and New Taipei advocating for the recall of KMT legislators, along with the Safeguard Taiwan, Anti-Communist Alliance (反共護台聯盟), have previously announced plans for motorcycle parades and public
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