■ TRANSPORT
Four injured in crash
A tour bus carrying 15 passengers -- 13 of them tourists from Hong Kong -- hit an electric pole in a scenic mountainous area in Chiayi County, leaving three men and one woman injured, police said on Monday. A Taiwanese tour guide sustained the most serious injuries. The tour guide and three tourists from Hong Kong were all conscious and none were in critical condition, police said. Two of the tourists have been discharged from the hospital after treatment and rejoined the tour group. The tour guide and one tourist remained in hospital for observation. The bus was touring Alishan (阿里山) when the accident occurred, police said, adding that visibility at the time was very poor because of heavy fog. Police were still investigating the cause of the accident.
■ SOCIETY
Youngsters impulse buyers
Nearly half of Taiwanese youngsters succumb to impulse-buying, although more than 70 percent said it was worthwhile to think it over before making a decision, a recent survey by ACNeilson Taiwan Ltd on behalf of Citibank Taiwan and the Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation showed. The survey obtained answers from 1,742 high school students around the country from Sept. 18 to Jan. 19. The results showed that 45 percent of respondents acknowledged they would buy on the spur of the moment. Of the girls surveyed, 53 percent admitted to impulse buying, compared with 34 percent of the boys. The survey also found that 84 percent of respondents believed they should be held responsible for their behavior. Meanwhile, 90 percent said they understood that a bad credit history would make it difficult to get bank loans in future.
■ TRANSPORT
Baseball cards on sale soon
Taipei Smart Card Corp will begin selling a new set of four EasyCards featuring two notable Taiwan-born baseball stars playing in Major League Baseball, a company executive said yesterday. The players are the New York Yankees' right-handed pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民) and the Los Angeles Dodgers' left-handed pitcher Kuo Hong-chih (郭泓志). The new cards will be sold at 24 7-Eleven stores and the Taipei Metro Souvenir Shop at Taipei Main Station, the executive said. He said the company will issue only 5,000 sets of the new cards, with each set costing NT$1,500. People interested in the new cards can visit www.tscc.com.tw for more information.
■ SOCIETY
Abuse procedures clarified
Township and borough officials will be fined up to NT$30,000 (US$9,120) if they fail to report child abuse cases that they are aware of, the Children's Bureau announced yesterday. The new policy is part of the bureau's clarification of duties for medical personnel, social workers, educators, police and justice officials when they encounter cases of child abuse. The measure is part of a new child abuse prevention bill drafted by the bureau, an interior ministry release said, adding that it would be discussed further in a Cabinet meeting next month before being passed and submitted to the legislature for review. The bill identifies low-income and single-parent families, families with a history of drug and alcohol abuse or mental illness and families whose grandparents raise their grandchildren or that have experienced the death of a parent or parents, as "high-risk" families in which abuse is more likely to occur.
■ GOVERNMENT
Passport seminar held
Scores of foreign specialists on electronic passports attended a seminar sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday to offer tips on Taiwan's e-passport plan. The ministry organized the Taiwan ePassport Forum in cooperation with the Asia Pacific Smart Card Association in preparation for its issuance of e-passports starting next year. Electronic passport specialists from Germany, France, Australia and several other countries delivered speeches at the forum and exchanged views and technological know-how with local software and hardware makers. Stressing that the issuance of an e-passport will be an integral part of a passport renewal process to stamp out forgery and other fraud, an official from the ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs said the program would not affect existing passport application procedures.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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