■ POLITICS
New party to hold meeting
The newly established Taiwan Farmers Party will hold a commissioners meeting next Thursday to hammer out strategies to boost the party's development and recruit more members, party sources said. The party, headquartered in Kaohsiung County, formed a 23-member Development Commission at its inaugural meeting on Friday. During the commission's first meeting, a liaison officer will be selected to represent the party in engagements with other political parties and government authorities, the sources said. The party, which has vowed to fight for farmers and fishermen's rights and interests, seeks to establish effective tactics and strategies to win at least 5 percent of the vote in the upcoming legislative elections in order to secure two to three at-large legislative seats, the sources said.
■ TRADE
Australia to import mangoes
The Australian government has agreed to import mangoes from Taiwan, in a major breakthrough in bilateral trade relations, officials of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia announced on Monday. The breakthrough is the result of a three-year effort to persuade the Australian government to import the Taiwanese fruit, the officials said. The announcement came after Australian quarantine officials came to Taiwan to inspect mango farms and other related facilities at the end of last month, officials said. Mangoes are a tropical fruit in season during the summer. Therefore, during the southern hemisphere winter, Australian consumers will be able to enjoy imported Taiwanese mangoes, the officials said.
■ SOCIETY
Pendants endanger kids
Doctors are warning parents not to let their infants wear pendants, necklaces or pacifiers attached to strings around their necks after a Taiwanese girl was strangled to death by the string of her pendant. The incident occurred in Hsinchu County on April 19. The girl died on Monday after lying in a coma for two months, the Chinese-language Apple Daily and the United Daily News reported. The two dailies said the parents of the one-year-old girl had gotten a longevity pendant from a temple and tied it around the girl's neck with a string. On April 19, the girl was playing in a baby's bed with her two-year-old sister when the string of her pendant got caught on an iron bar of the baby bed, strangling her. When the mother, surnamed Lee, realized something was wrong, she rushed into the room, but her daughter was already unconscious. The girl's mother, 28, was charged with homicide, which carries a maximum two-year jail term.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Bureau urges cuts
The Environmental Protection Bureau of the Taipei City Government is urging business and the public to cooperate in a drive that will start on July 1 to wipe out over-packaging and reduce waste. According to bureau officials, during a random inspection of food gift boxes last month, four out of 10 gift boxes were over-packaged. Most of the over-packaged items were chicken essence products. Since July last year, the Environmental Protection Administration has implemented increasingly strict regulations targeting over-packaged gift boxes containing cakes, cosmetics, liquor, computer software and video games, bureau officials said.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
Shih Hsin University President Chen Ching-he (陳清河) yesterday issued a public apology for comments made in his commencement speech last week, stating that he has asked the school to suspend his duties and halt his wages for two months as a show of contrition. At the commencement ceremony on May 30, Chen said, “If you don’t manage your time well, or your own emotions, or your health, then I am telling every one of you — put a quick end to ‘you,’ because the world has no need for ‘you.’” The comments have sparked significant controversy online, and Chen through an open
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