■POLITICS
Ma denies Web site hacked
The Presidential Office yesterday denied its Web site had been hacked and replaced with a video clip mocking President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and several other officials. The video clip, which could be seen on the Presidential Office Web page, showed Ma, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) and former minister of health Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) dancing to Sorry Sorry, a Korean pop song. The video clip mocked Ma and his Cabinet officials for their poor performance in handling the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot. The video can also be seen on YouTube. Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that the Presidential Office’s Web site was not hacked, and that no information was stolen. “It is only a prank. The Web site has not been hacked,” he said. Wang said the video clip was uploaded to the Web site by people using a home computer instruction code to change the Web page path.
■TYPHOON
COA denies responsibility
Officials from the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) Forestry Bureau said that most of the driftwood that has accumulated on the coast near Tainan County’s Jiangjyun (將軍) fishing port did not originate from state-owned forests overseen by the COA. An official from the Forestry Bureau division in Chiayi County said after a fact-finding tour of the port area that a majority of the driftwood, extending over 1.3 hectares, did not come from state-owned forests. The bureau officials said the central government would decide who should clear the driftwood. Fishermen complained that they have incurred huge losses because of the driftwood.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
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