■ SOCIETY
California hotline set up
Taiwan's government has set up a special hotline at 002-1-213-446-5008 for people in need of information on friends and relatives caught up in the wildfires blown by fierce winds that have forced hundreds of thousands of people in southern California to flee, Phoebe Yeh (葉非比), acting deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The ministry's staffers in the US have visited Taiwanese affected by the fires at a resource center in San Diego and they all remain safe, Yeh said. Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) has sent a message to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to express the support and best wishes of the government and the Taiwanese people, Yeh said.
■ ASTRONOMY
Fullest moon to appear
The fullest moon of this year will appear tonight, according to astronomers in Taipei. Astronomers at the Taipei Astronomical Museum said the moon will become full at 12:52pm today, and that at 8pm members of the public will be able to look east at a 35o angle to view the fullest moon of the year. At that time the Moon will reach the closest point to Earth of its orbit. Today's moon will be 14 percent larger than the smallest full moon of this year, seen on April 3, when the moon was farthest from the Earth, the astronomers said. The full moon today is also expected to be 30 percent brighter than lesser full moons seen earlier in the year.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Hsieh wants `wetland bank'
Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) proposed a "wetland bank" concept yesterday, suggesting that efforts be made to conserve and restore the nation's wetlands. Efforts should be made to systematically research and plan wetland conservation and restoration so that wildlife habitats can be conserved and the sustainable development of wetlands can be secured, Hsieh said. Some of these efforts could be commissioned to NGO groups, he said. Noting that conserving the environment is a move that reflects "the power of progress," Hsieh said Taiwan should seek to link itself to the "global power of progress" and make the nation a stronghold of this concept. Hsieh made the remarks during a ceremony held in Taipei to mark the inauguration of the NGO group Taiwan Ecological Engineering Development Foundation.
■ CRIME
Ko held for insider trading
Venture capital mogul Ko Wen-chang (柯文昌) and two associates have been detained for alleged insider trading, a prosecutor said yesterday. Ko, chairman of leading capital firm WK Technology Fund, and company executives Ho Cheng-chin (何正卿) and Lee Rung-hsun (李榮勳) were arrested on Wednesday after prosecutors raided the company, said Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村), a spokesman for the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office. They were suspected of making illegal profits of up to NT$900 million (US$27 million) through the acquisition of Green Point Enterprises Co by US-based Jabil Circuit Inc, Lin said. WK Technology Fund allegedly purchased a large amount of shares in Green Point between July and December last year before Jabil Circuit, a maker of printed circuit boards, announced in January that the merger was completed. Ko, dubbed the "godfather of venture capital" by local media, also faces perjury charges for allegedly destroying evidence related to the case, the prosecutor said.
■ CRIME
Official sentenced to jail
Taipei judges yesterday sentenced Vice Chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏) to 11 years in prison for embezzling funds from Formosa Telecom Investment (全民電通投資公司) during his time as company president in 1996. Chang, also a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, was charged with violating breach of trust, the Business Accounting Law (商業會計法) as well as the Securities Transaction Law (證券交易法). Chang said yesterday he was unsure whether he would appeal the verdict. The company was established by Chang and other DPP members in 1996 to fund Formosa Television (FTV, 民視). Chang reportedly raised NT$3 billion (US$90 million) from 15,000 investors, but only NT$1 billion was used for FTV.
■ HEALTH
New tumor treatment found
A new autoimmune treatment for brain tumors has been developed by the Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital, with a survival rate of 85.8 percent. Neurosurgery department director Cho Der-yang (周德陽) said yesterday the new therapy employs dendritic cells extracted from a patient's blood to fight malignant glioma cells in the brain to minimize side effects and increase the chances of survival. Cho said the dendritic cells are cultivated in vitro with malignant glioma cells, a process that "teaches" dendritic cells to recognize the malignant cells and trigger immune mechanisms. "Educated" dendritic cells are then injected back into the patient to stimulate his T-lymphocytes, which fight the remaining malignant cells. "A single course of treatment takes six months and 10 injections," Cho said.
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
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
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