■ DIPLOMACY
Chen stops not yet decided
Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) said yesterday that the US had not yet responded to the issue of the arrangements for President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) stopovers in the US during his visit to Central American allies that will begin on Aug. 20. Huang said that most of the press coverage about Chen's stopovers was speculation as the president's itinerary was still under review. The government will try its best to coordinate with the US on the issue, Huang said. Meanwhile, the ministry held a swearing-in ceremony for four diplomats. Representative to Thailand Roy Wu (烏元彥), Representative to Peru Huang Lien-sheng (黃聯昇), Representative to Papua New Guinea Chen Shan-lin (陳杉林) and Representative to South Africa Tu Sheng-kuan (杜聖觀) took their oath of office and will soon assume their new positions.
■ DEFENSE
English camp held
More than 230 National Defense University students participated in an English camp at Fuhsingkang campus in Taipei yesterday, as part of the military's efforts to upgrade its officers' English comprehension ability. The university organized the five-day English camp, hiring nine foreign-certified English teachers to instruct the students on making English a part of their daily lives. Fuhsingkang campus director Major General Wang Ming-wo (王明我) encouraged the students to take advantage of the camp to learn to express themselves in English. Communication is very important, especially to a military officer, he said, adding that it is a tool that an officer can use to explore the world.
■ HEALTH
Pap smear screening low
More than 40 percent of Taiwanese women do not undergo a pap smear test at least once a year, even though free cervical cancer screening has been offered by the government since 1995, a doctor at National Cheng Kung University Hospital said yesterday. Cheng Ya-ming (鄭雅敏), a doctor in the hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said that about 500,000 women around the world die from cervical cancer every year. This type of cancer also poses as a major health threat to Taiwanese women, with the number of new cases per year reaching 6,000. With some 1,000 Taiwanese dying from cervical cancer each year, it has become the leading cause of death among women in the country. He said women aged 30 to 50 form the bulk of those undergoing annual screening, with few women who have reached menopause requesting such tests.
■ HEALTH
Stores to help with first aid
Taipei health authorities are working on a plan to make the city's 2,000 convenience stores part of its first aid network, officials with the city's Department of Health said yesterday. They said the plan will see convenience store employees offered the opportunity to go on training programs so that they can be issued with first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification. They said that with appropriate training, these stores can supplement the emergency medical services provided by hospital emergency rooms and the city's Fire Department. Kao Wei-chun (高偉君), section chief in charge of medical services administration, said the government hoped the employees of at least 70 percent of the 2,000 convenience stores could have their employees qualified in CPR and first aid before the end of this year.
■ CRIME
Thai arrested at airport
A Thai woman was arrested on Sunday at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for trying to leave on a bogus passport, National Immigration Agency officers said yesterday. The 45-year-old woman, identified as Parawee Vichaivong, admitted that she obtained the false passport for NT$30,000 from a human-trafficking group. The woman was detained while preparing to board a flight to Bangkok. Vichaivong entered the country last year and began working in a massage parlor.
■ LAW
Illustrator sues phone seller
A popular illustrator and author who uses the pen-name Jimmy has sued an online Chinese mobile phone seller for infringing upon his copyright, a Chinese court news Web site reported yesterday. The case is being handled by the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing, according to www.chinacourt.org which is sponsored by the Supreme People's Court of China. In his petition filed with the court, Jimmy accused the seller, which operates through the Web site www.18900.com, of allowing its customers to download his illustrations as mobile phone themes without his authorization, the report said. They include illustrations from some of his popular illustrated books, such as Turn Left Turn Right, Moon Forget, Sound of Colors and Missing My Cat, the report said. In addition to requiring the seller to stop the unauthorized download service, Jimmy is demanding that the seller pay him 300,000 Chinese yuan (US$39,651) in compensation, post an apology statement on its Web site and pay for his lawyer fees and travel costs.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
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