TRANSPORT
Electric buses in September
Greater Kaohsiung is to see 11 electric buses taking to the streets as soon as September, once all the recharging stations have been installed. The buses will run between the Zuoying high-speed railway station in Zuoying District (左營) and Cishan District (旗山), said Huang Jung-hui (黃榮輝), an official with the city’s transportation bureau. The first eight vehicles, completed last month, were not put into service because the recharging stations had not been fully installed, Huang said. He added that the 11 recharging stations, all in Cishan, are scheduled to be in place by the end of next month. When fully charged, the buses, built with government funding of NT$57 million (US$1.9 million), can cover 200km, or approximately two round-trips, Huang said.
LABOR
Teenagers get less pay
More than 90 percent of employers in Greater Taichung pay their teenage part-time workers less than the minimum wage and do not provide health and labor insurance coverage for them, according to a recent poll. The survey showed that while 69.7 percent of teenagers in Taichung are interested in working part time during the summer vacation, only 49.9 percent are aware that their employers are required by law to provide them with labor and health insurance coverage. Among the 33.7 percent of teens who said they had part-time work experience, 72.8 percent reported the pay they had received was below the minimum hourly wage of NT$103, while 89.8 percent said they had not been offered health and labor insurance coverage, according to the survey conducted by the Taichung-based Chionyuan Social Welfare Foundation. The survey was conducted from June 7 to June 20 among 1,178 students in junior and senior-high schools.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Council denies it is ‘tool’
The National Security Council on Tuesday denied a report that accused it of having been a political tool for the Chinese Nationlist Party (KMT) by monitoring opposition parties in the run-up to the January elections. The council said in a statement that the Hong Kong magazine Yazhou Zhoukan’s report about a flawed mechanism in the agency “is false.” The magazine reported that the mechanism to integrate the country’s security system and intelligence resources has become a tool for political wrestling between a ruling party and opposition parties. The reported also said the council gave an order to the Investigation Bureau to monitor the activities of opposition parties ahead of the elections. The council said had already explained that it did not conduct any intelligence gathering targeting opposition parties when a similar report emerged in December last year.
HEALTH
Missions are ‘valuable’
Taiwan’s overseas medical missions are a projection of the nation’s soft power, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday at a meeting held to encourage hospitals to take part in international humanitarian projects. Describing medical missions as “valuable assets,” Yang said Taiwan’s success in conducting such missions since 1962 has gained the acclaim of its allies. Taiwan’s initiatives have also enabled the country to establish connections with other major international organizations, he told an audience of representatives from more than a dozen hospitals nationwide, citing a recent health program launched with Taiwan’s help in the Gambia that has greatly benefited pregnant mothers and babies.
MUSIC
Taichung hosts horn contest
Taichung will host its first international saxophone competition in mid-October as part of the city government’s efforts to promote the instrument. The contest will be held from Oct. 17 to Oct. 19 as a precursor of the city’s annual Oct. 20 to Oct. 28 jazz festival, Greater Taichung Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇) said. To attract competitors from home and aboard, a top prize of US$30,000 will be offered, he said. Taiwanese ballads, including The Moon Represents My Heart (月亮代表我的心), Waiting for Spring Wind (望春風) and Flower in the Rainy Night (雨夜花), will be required tunes for all entries, he added. He said Greater Taichung’s Houli Township (后里) is known to saxophone players around the world as “the home of the horn,” thanks to its many, mostly family-owned, instrument manufacturing operations. More than 60 percent of the world’s saxophones come from Houli, he added.
HEALTH
Fish fail drugs tests
As much as 50 percent of East Asian fourfinger threadfin failed recent checks for drug residues, with some found to contain the antibiotic sulfonamide, according to the Department of Health’s Food and Drug Administration. The agency said it examined 67 products last month and nine of them failed the standards set for veterinary drug residue. Of the 67, 16 were threadfin products and eight failed the tests, it said, adding that five of the eight substandard threadfin products contained sulfonamides, while the other three contained leucomalachite green, a synthetic dye. Lin Chieh-liang (林杰樑), director of the toxicology department at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, said excessive consumption of leucomalachite green can lead to liver damage and deformities in children.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at