■POLITICS
Kung denies US citizenship
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) yesterday denied he was one of two lawmakers possibly named by the US in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to have US citizenship, which would violate the Nationality Law (國籍法). MOFA asked the US for its help in September to determine whether any lawmakers held permanent US residency or citizenship after it was alleged that KMT Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) was still a US citizen. Kung is one of several KMT lawmakers recently accused by the Democratic Progressive Party of being US citizens after MOFA refused to reveal the results of the probe, which Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said showed that two lawmakers’ status may be in violation of the law. Calling on MOFA to disclose the names, Kung said he would ask the US to offer an apology, sue the US government and demand compensation if it had made a mistake. KMT legislators Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), Chang Sho-wen (張碩文), Mark Li (李明星) and John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) have all denied allegations that they have US citizenship.
■IMMIGRATION
NIA to celebrate migrants
In celebration of International Migrant’s Day, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) is staging a series of activities starting on Thursday to celebrate ethnic diversity and raise awareness of the problems faced by immigrants. The NIA said that to Taiwan has more than 410,000 foreign spouses, mostly from Southeast Asia. The figure for all foreign migrants, including blue and white-collar workers, is close to 1 million, the office said. Pan Ming-mei (潘明梅), a Thai national married to a Taiwanese man for 12 years, said the hardest thing about being a foreign bride was educating her children because Mandarin is not her mother tongue. She said although her kids have not faced any prejudice from their peers, she has many friends whose children are discriminated against by their classmates for being the child of a foreigner. The celebration will include an international forum on global trends in migrant workers on Thursday and an all-day exhibition on Saturday at Taipei’s Huashan Cultural Park. Taichung railway station and Kaohsiung MRT Central Park Station will also host two-day exhibitions this weekend.
■POLITICS
Hu gets Taiwan Sugar job
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday appointed Hu Mao-lin (胡懋麟), a former vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, as chairman of state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖) to succeed Wu Rong-ming (吳容明), who resigned last month. Wu unexpectedly tendered his resignation two months after taking the post to show his dissatisfaction with government interference when he was selecting a new general manager for the company. It was reported that Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) wanted Hu to install his nephew Chen Ching-bin (陳清彬) over Wu’s favored candidate Chi Tsung-chi (紀聰吉).
■ENVIRONMENT
Hiking trail restored
Four mountain climbing groups, including one composed of soldiers from an army airborne division, gathered in central Taiwan on Sunday to mark the restoration of a flagship hiking trail between Hsitou (溪頭) and Alishan that has been blocked since the 921 Earthquake in 1999. About 100 people in four groups gathered at the Shanlinhsi Recreational Park in Nantou County to mark their efforts to renovate the hiking trail between Hsitou and Alishan which was damaged by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake.
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
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