■ ENVIRONMENT
Taipei County cleans park
Taipei County got a head start on National Cleanup Week yesterday, with County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and Sanchong Mayor Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍) leading more than 100 volunteers, sanitation workers and residents to clean up Sanchong's Datong Park. The Environmental Protection Administration marks National Cleanup Week each year ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. This year's clean-up week starts on Wednesday. Chou urged county residents to take action to clean up the environment around their neighborhoods. He said Taipei County hoped to create a "garden city" and would plant more trees and flowers.
■ CULTURE
Film subsidies on the way
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said on Friday that the city government would provide subsidies, rewards and other benefits to local filmmakers and TV program producers who help raise the city's profile. The city government will also launch a film festival for students to encourage the participation of young people in the film industry, he said. Lee Yung-ping (李永萍), head of the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, said the department would allocate NT$12 million (US$371,400) to support the film industry and earmark another NT$5 million to publish a guidebook on filmmaking in the city. Guidelines for renting city locations to shoot scenes should be set by the commission within six months, she said.
■ ENERGY
LPG stations planned
The Bureau of Energy has outlined a plan to establish at least one liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fueling station in each county and city in Taiwan, excluding outlying islands, within five years. The plan is part of a project approved by the Executive Yuan earlier this month to increase the number of LPG dual-fuel vehicles to 150,000 units within the next five years and to raise the number of fueling stations for LPG vehicles to 150 by 2012, the bureau said in a news release. There are 20 LPG stations around the country, most of which are in metropolitan areas. Another 17 filling stations are being built. Bureau officials said the reason there are so few LPG stations is because the guidelines for opening them are stricter and the costs are high. To address cost, the bureau will offer generous subsidies, they said.
■ AGRICULTURE
Office promotes marketing
The Council of Agriculture will launch a strategic office for agricultural technology and development tomorrow with the aim of promoting competitiveness on the global produce market, the council said in a statement yesterday. In its first year, the office will work to facilitate the transfer of technology to farmers and help farmers apply the results in their fields. The new office will also offer advanced training and education on marketing products, establishing a nationwide database of produce manufacturers and bringing together agricultural experts to advise farmers, the council said. The council has focused in recent years on helping the sector become more knowledge-based and has seen positive results. The council said 139 patent applications and technology transfer cases were recorded last year, a 50 percent increase over the average between 2002 and 2006, while royalties on agricultural technology topped NT$47.25 million (US$1.46 million), representing a 250 percent increase on the figure for the preceding five years.
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
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
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
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