■ POLITICS
Vote-buying alleged
Eleven council representatives in Guangfu Township (光復), Hualien, were questioned by Hualien prosecutors about vote-buying allegations. Guangfu Township Council yesterday morning held council chairperson and vice chairperson elections, which were won by Lin Tai-hsu (林泰旭) and Wan Jung-tsai (萬榮財), both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members, respectively. As soon as it was announced that Lin and Wan had been elected, prosecutors, military police and agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau appeared in the council. chairman Hualien prosecutor Hsu Chien-jung (?a) said Lin was suspected of paying some representatives NT$500,000 each in return for their votes, while Wan was suspected of paying NT$300,000 for a vote. The summons were on-going as of press time.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Paper certificates return
The Sindian Land Office in Taipei County will resume issuing paper certificates of title from today based on environmental considerations, office chief Chuang Yue-kuei (莊月桂) said yesterday. The office will stop issuing plastic certificates, although plastic certificates will remain valid and holders will not be asked to replace them with paper ones, Chuang said. In light of the fact that waste plastic certificates generate toxic gases and harm the environment when they are incinerated, the county government decided to stop issuing plastic ones and to reintroduce paper versions, Chuang said.
■ RETAIL
Web sites to offer MIT goods
Certified made-in-Taiwan (MIT) products will soon be available on Taiwan’s three main online shopping Web sites, an Industrial Development Bureau official said yesterday. The bureau is in discussions with three major online shopping operators, including Yahoo-Kimo and PChome, and if the talks are successful, consumers will be able to purchase MIT-labeled items on their Web sites in October at the earliest, the official said. The bureau is promoting an MIT label and an MIT quality verification system aimed at helping domestic industries to promote their products, the official said. Last month, 14 major chain stores nationwide agreed to promote certified MIT products by stocking the products in their 10,000 stores from October.
■ CULTURE
Puppets donated to Canada
The Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) will donate four hand puppets to the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia today, a council official said yesterday. “The puppets illustrate the development of Taiwanese puppet shows,” the official said, adding that a presentation ceremony in Canada will be held, followed by a performance of A Sea of Puppets by the Taiyuan Puppet Theater in Taipei, directed by Robin Ruizendaal, which has been performed in more than 30 countries. The museum is world-renowned for its collections, research, public programs and teaching. “Taiwan’s first lady Chow Mei-ching [周美青] visited the museum with CCA Minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) in February and saw many antique puppets in the museum collection, which inspired them with the idea of donating modern puppets to the museum,” the official said. The four puppets are the Scholar Warrior Shih Yan-wen, Hidden Mirror Man and the Pili series’ main characters Su Huan-jen and Yu Qing-huan. Among them, the scholar warrior Shih has longest history.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS