■ Politics
KMT primary heats up
Heating up competition within the pan-blue camp for Taipei County commissioner, former minister of justice Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪) registered yesterday to enter the party's preliminaries for the seat. Liao said that he had restored his party membership a month ago, and will have the necessary 5,000 signatures needed to qualify for the preliminaries. There are five other competitors: KMT legislators Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) and Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋); Wang Lin-huei (王玲惠), head of the Taipei County Federation of Chinese Business Women, and Sanchung Mayor Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍). Chou created a scandal last week when he left the People First Party and registered with the KMT in order to enter the race.
■ Crime
Five men jailed in Vietnam
Five Taiwanese men were given jail terms ranging from two to nine years for using fake travelers checks in Vietnam. Lee Yao-yu, Wong Chi-feng, Chang Yi-yu, Liu Che-an and Su Wen-hsien used 21 fake checks to buy around US$95,000 worth of gold jewelry, diamonds and laptops last July, said Bui Kim Dung, an official of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. "Lee and Wong were both sentenced to nine years in jail for leading the fraud," Dung said. "Chang and Liu were given jail terms of eight years, while Su Wen-hsien got two years." The counterfeit checks were made in Taiwan and the five men were part of a gang who had been passing off fake checks there. The men were arrested after they had been using the fake checks for several days.
■ Diplomacy
Greater outreach urged
Taiwan should develop the ability to establish an agenda at major events such as the APEC forum to boost its influence, Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said yesterday. Wu made the remarks while attending an APEC operations seminar sponsored by the Taiwan APEC Study Center. Wu noted that APEC and the WTO are two international organizations that Taiwan participates in, and that the APEC leaders' meeting is the only venue where its officials can get together with world leaders and officials. He said that no publicity drive could be more effective to demonstrate the nation's sovereignty than Taiwanese leaders mingling with other leaders. But he said that the agenda of the APEC meeting has been affected by the changing international political and economic situation, and the government has to keep abreast of the latest developments to work out how Taiwan can increase its presence.
■ Architecture
Urban planners visit Stuttgart
A delegation headed by Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) visited Stuttgart on Sunday to inspect the city's urban planning and greening project. Stuttgart, which used to be an overcrowded, overdeveloped industrial city, has undergone a major transformation in recent years under a municipal government "greening" plan to make the city into a European commercial and industrial center with a high-quality living environment to attract people to live, work and invest. Yang praised the city for its greening efforts, saying during the one-day visit that Kaohsiung County can learn from it in planning a university town in Yenchao Township and an urban park at the site of the former Weiwu military barracks.
■ Crime
Bounty on forgers raised
The reward for information leading to the arrest or indictment of forgers has been raised to NT$500,000 from NT$200,000, according to the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The office urged people to use a toll-free hotline (080-001-6597) to report forgers. An official said that Web sites are replacing shops as the most popular places for selling forged products.
■ Crime
Four nabbed for forgery
Four men were arrested yesterday for producing fake Microsoft certificates of authenticity. Computers with the fake stickers were first found in Australia last July, and Australian police tracked the maker down to this country. Acting on a tip-off from Australian officials, Taipei police raided a workshop in Sungshan, Taipei City, yesterday. Four people were arrested along with 33 sheets of a wide variety of fake certificates for Windows 98, Windows XP and other software.
■ Diplomacy
Troupe performs overseas
The Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera troupe is scheduled to perform in Bangkok this weekend to celebrate the 55th anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit's marriage and the 50th birthday of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorne. At the invitation of the Thai government, the opera troupe, founded in 1929, will present its most popular play, The Living Buddha Chikung. The award-winning play, which premiered in 1983, features Buddhist truths, principles and practices. It is perfect for the play to be performed in a Buddhist country, the head of the troupe, Chen Sheng-fu (陳勝福), said yesterday.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition