■ DIPLOMACY
Ally prime minister to visit
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that Sao Tome and Principe Prime Minister Tome Vera Cruz will lead a delegation to Taiwan on Monday for a four-day visit. Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) will host a birthday party for Cruz on the day of his arrival, ministry officials said. Cruz will call on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to exchange views on the situation in Africa, bilateral relations and cooperation projects, the officials said. Cruz is also expected to visit information, textile, harbor, power and agriculture facilities, they said. Cruz, who assumed the post of prime minister in April last year, last visited Taiwan in April 2005.
■ HEALTH
Bone marrow donated
A shipment of bone marrow donated by a female Chinese national and tested as a compatible match for a potential Taiwanese recipient is scheduled to arrive in Taipei today. The bone marrow, expected to be delivered from Shanghai to an operating theater at Taipei Veterans General Hospital late tonight, will be transplanted to a 15-year-old girl suffering from inherited anemia. It will mark the first case in which someone from China has donated bone marrow for a Taiwanese recipient. Taiwanese had donated bone marrow to Chinese recipients over the past several years under the arrangements made by Taiwan's Tzu Chi Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Center. The center -- the largest of its kind in Asia -- has built up a databank of nearly 300,000 bone marrow samples since its inception in 1993. It has helped more than 300 victims of blood diseases find donors.
■ CULTURE
Fishermen's fest next week
A Fishermen's Festival will be held next Saturday and Sunday at Waipu Fishing Harbor (外埔漁港) in Houlong Township (後龍), Miaoli County, to mark Fishermen's Day. Activities at the festival will include an exhibition of the local fishing culture, ecological tours, sales of seafood products, seafood specialty cooking classes, a concert and fireworks at night, said Chen You-ching (陳有慶), president of the Taiwan Fishery Association. Visitors will be able to participate in qian gu (牽罟) -- a traditional fishing technique that involves the entire community -- and to see shi hu (石滬), or stone fish traps that once dotted the nation's seacoasts, but now can only be found in Miaoli and Penghu, historian Wang Chi-jen (王啟仁) said.
■ POLITICS
Hsieh leaves on US trip
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential hopeful Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) will head to the US today for an eight-day visit, his campaign spokesman said yesterday. The trip will take Hsieh to New York, Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles, Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said. "The visit is aimed at building a channel of communication between Hsieh and the US. We hope it will pave the way for long-term communication," Chao said. In New York, Hsieh will attend a Yankees baseball game, in which Wang Chien-ming (王建民) will be the starting pitcher. He is also scheduled to deliver a speech at the National Press Club in Washington and attend the launch of his supporter clubs in the US capital and Los Angeles. Chao declined to comment on local news reports that Hsieh was to meet with officials from the Pentagon, the US National Security Council and the Department of State, including Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.
■ CRIME
Police nab pigeon suspects
Four men and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of being part of a fraud ring in Tainan County, the Tainan Prosecutors Office announced yesterday. The prosecutors said the five suspects set up nets to trap racing pigeons in several townships in Tainan County in January. They then demanded ransoms of between NT$2,000 and NT$5,000 per bird. The ring made more than NT$1 million (US$30,000), according to the prosecutors. The ring members also rented a building in Tainan and used it as a base for tricking Chinese people to remit money to a specific bank account in China in exchange for "tax rebates," the prosecutors said. Two of the suspects were detained and the other three were released on bail, while the prosecutors continue their probe.
■ CULTURE
Poles attend language camp
A total of 32 students from various universities in Warsaw, Poland, are attending a Mandarin language study camp at National Kaohsiung Normal University. University president Dai Chia-nan (戴嘉南) said yesterday that the 42-day language and cultural workshop was co-sponsored by the school's Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Poland. The Polish students are taking Chinese lessons for 20 hours per week, as well as Chinese painting, calligraphy, tea ceremony, paper cutting, kung fu, opera and Taichi courses. The program also includes visits to tourist attractions and cultural institutions, including major Taoist temples, the Foguangshan Foundation for Buddhist Culture and Education, Chengcing Lake and Kaohsiung City Council.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
INTEL: China’s ships are mapping strategic ocean floors, including near Guam, which could aid undersea cable targeting and have military applications, a report said China’s oceanographic survey and research ships are collecting data in the Indo-Pacific region — possibly to aid submarine navigation, detect or map undersea cables, and lay naval mines — activities that could have military applications in a conflict with Taiwan or the US, a New York Times report said. The article, titled “China Surveys Seabeds Where Naval Rivals May One Day Clash,” was written by Chris Buckley and published on Thursday. Starboard Maritime Intelligence data revealed that Chinese research ships last year repeatedly scanned the ocean floor east of Taiwan’s maritime border, and about 400km east and west of Guam; “waters that
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