■ POLITICS
Pressure sways Taiwan Post
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said yesterday the Taiwan Post Co had agreed to issue and sell a set of personalized stamps that she had designed. The Taiwan Post Co, which had previously refused to issue and sell Pan's stamps, changed its mind after the opposition threatened to slash the state-run company's budget request, she said. Pan said she had placed the order for the stamps last month, following which she made changes to the design several times at the request of the company after it told her that her design was too similar to a set of stamps featuring the national flag previously issued by the company. Despite the company's change of heart, Pan yesterday continued to criticize it, saying the company should not have considered the flag "politically sensitive" because Taiwan had not changed the national flag.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Mystery fish deaths probed
The Eastern Coastal Patrol Office and Taitung County Government have organized a special team to probe the mysterious deaths of large numbers of corals and deep sea fish off the coast of Green Island (綠島) over the past few weeks, a local official said on Wednesday. Since Dec. 21, waves of dead fish have been swept ashore each day on Green Island, or Lutao, Lutao Township (綠島) Mayor Chen Chia-wen (陳嘉文) said. At first, island residents would pick up the fish and take them home to eat, but stopped doing so after more dead fish continued to wash ashore, Chen said. Chen Ming-hsiu (鄭明修), a researcher with the Academia Sinica Research Center for Biodiversity, said he has begun laboratory tests on tissues taken from the dead fish and that the test results would be available in a few days. Fishery officials advised local people to refrain from eating the fish.
■ HEALTH
Peak flu figures expected
The number of people suffering from influenza is rising steadily, with the number of infections expected to peak next week, the Department of Health said. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director Lin Ting (林頂) said on Wednesday that the number of people suffering from flu has steadily risen from 3.4 to 3.96 per 100 over the past four weeks, reaching an alarming level. Eighteen clusters of flu outbreaks have been reported this winter. Of these, 13 were in schools, 11 of which were in elementary schools, meaning that schools, parents and students should be on guard, he said. Lee Ping-ying (李秉穎), a pediatrician at the National Taiwan University Hospital, urged people to seek proper treatment to prevent their condition from worsening or leading to other complications.
■ POLITICS
Young activists support TSU
A group of young advocates of a military enlistment system yesterday urged the electorate to support the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which they said was the only political party fully backing their cause. Cheng Kai-feng (鄭凱峰), convener of the Taiwan Youthwake Organization, said they had collected more than 33,000 endorsements since launching a signature drive about four months ago. Instead of gradually reducing the term of military service, it would make more sense to recruit qualified people interested in a military career and spend government resources on them, Cheng said. TSU spokeswoman Chou Mei-li (周美里) said her party would make an effort to recommend the idea to the new legislature.
■ SOCIETY
Drumming world record set
Taipei County residents rang in the New Year on Tuesday by breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people drumming simultaneously in one location, in an activity held outside the county hall. The effort was organized by the Taipei County Government to celebrate the county's upgrade to a quasi-special municipality on Oct. 1 last year. Residents began gathering at the site at 2pm on Tuesday for the record attempt. At 5pm, 10,162 participants simultaneously beat their drums for five minutes to formally establish a new Guinness World Record, breaking the old record of 10,045 people set in Hong Kong.
■ ARTS
Troupe appeals for funds
Spanish theater company La Fura dels Baus has been seeking donations to repair its "floating stage" ship, which was damaged in a collision with another vessel en route to Kaohsiung last month to stage a New Year's Eve show. The 61m-long Nauron, which means "ship of the world," suffered damage to its bow and internal structure when it grazed another vessel in a near head-on collision while sailing through the Strait of Malacca in the early hours of Dec. 29, said Chen Chi (陳琪), executive secretary of the Taipei Arts Association. Despite the damage, the sturdy ice-breaker-turned-ship was able to complete its journey to Kaohsiung, Chen said. However, the ship was later denied permission to leave port after the Kaohsiung Harbor Administration conducted tests and determined the damage to be so extensive that it might jeopardize the ship's safety, she said. As a result, the theater company is appealing to the Kaohsiung public for donations to enable it to repair the ship and travel home.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV