BASEBALL
Film trailer touted
Previews for the upcoming baseball film Kano looks set to be a staple of New Year celebrations next week. The two-and-a-half-minute trailer for the film is to be screened at 21 countdown parties, concerts and other events in 20 cities and counties, Kano director Ma Chih-hsiang (馬志翔) said. Set in the Japanese era in 1931, Kano — the Japanese-language abbreviation for the Agriculture and Forestry Public School of Chiayi (then pronounced Kagi) — tells the true story of the school’s baseball team that traveled to Japan as the underdog to play in a renowned high-school baseball tournament. The film portrays the rigorous training undertaken by the team, which was composed of Japanese and Taiwanese athletes of Han Chinese and Aboriginal origins, and how they advanced against the odds to the finals of the tournament. The director said he hopes the film will help bring back memories of the “glorious era” of Taiwanese baseball.
IMMIGRATION
Fake Italian deported
An Iranian man holding a forged Italian passport was deported from Taoyuan airport on Wednesday when inspectors found he could not speak even basic Italian. A National Immigration Agency official saw through the ruse when he tried to start a chat in Italian only to find the man, identified only as “Ramezani,” did not even know basic greetings in the language. According to the agency’s account of Ramezani’s confession, he first bought a counterfeit Italian passport near Iran’s border with Turkey from a Russian dealer for US$8,000. With only US$600 in cash, he reportedly said he planned to work in Taiwan to buy a flight to Italy, where he would seek political asylum.
INDUSTRY
ASE executives questioned
Prosecutors yesterday summoned three Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) executives to explain their roles in the factory’s release of untreated industrial wastewater into a creek. ASE chairman Jason Chang (張虔生), chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) and president Raymond Lo (羅瑞榮) reported to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday afternoon. They departed after questioning later yesterday. The company is the world’s largest IC packaging and testing services provider. It was the latest move by prosecutors, who had earlier obtained a court order to detain Su Ping-shou (蘇炳碩), head of ASE’s K7 plant in Greater Kaohsiung. Following the discovery of the pollution problem at the plant, the Greater Kaohsiung Government’s Environmental Protection Bureau on Dec. 20 ordered a shutdown of some production lines in the factory.
LEGAL
Subpoena issued after fight
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday subpoenaed the father-in-law of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) eldest daughter, Lesley Ma (馬唯中), for questioning over a scuffle and a legal dispute brought against him by his former friend Liang Chih-hsi (梁治希). Tsai Lung’s (蔡龍) son, Allen Pei-jan Tsai (蔡沛然), married Lesley Ma last year. Chinese-language media reported earlier this week that Tsai Lung, 59, allegedly owed Liang, 60, NT$12 million (US$400,000), and the two had a dispute which came to blows over the debt on Taipei’s Renai Road in October. Subsequently, they sued each other for assault causing bodily harm. Upon leaving the Taipei District Court yesterday afternoon, Tsai Lung told the press that he did not owe Liang any money.
HEALTH
Flu shot age limit reduced
Taipei is hoping to keep its older residents healthy next year by lowering the minimum age for free influenza vaccinations in the city to 55, effective from Wednesday. The Minister of Health and Welfare announced yesterday the change to the free vaccination system, which currently covers residents aged 60 and above. State-funded flu vaccinations will also be made available across the nation for people with chronic diseases aged between 50 an 59, also on Wednesday, the ministry said. The programs are to run until the vaccines are used up, health officials said. Data from Taipei’s municipal Department of Health showed that as of Monday, the city has received 150 reports of cases of illnesses arising from flu complications, five of which were fatal. Eighty-eight percent of the cases involved patients who had not received flu shots.
CRIME
Jacky Wu sentenced
Popular TV variety show host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) was yesterday sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, suspended for a three-year probation period by the Taipei District Court for violation of the Securities and Exchange Act (證交法). The ruling added that Wu, who is board chairman of Alpha Photonitek Corp (APC), must pay the national treasury NT$3 million. Wu is allowed to appeal the case to the Taiwan High Court. According to the ruling, Wu collaborated with Lienming Mobile Technology chairman Hsu Fang-yang (許豐揚) to skim money from a transaction between the two firms. On Jan. 5, 2009, the two orchestrated a deal in which Lienming purchased a number of APC’s LED products for NT$180 million. The ruling said Wu pocketed NT$12.5 million from the deal, while Hsu took NT$20 million.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
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