Sun, Dec 31, 2017 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  TRANSPORTATION

  Traffic greets holiday-goers

  Heavy traffic greeted motorists yesterday morning — the start of the three-day New Year holiday, according to real-time data from the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau. As of 8:30am, cars were moving slower than 30kph on the southbound lane on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1), between Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口) and Jhubei City (竹北), the data showed. Meanwhile, travel speed was just over 30kph on the southbound section between New Taipei City’s Tucheng (土城) and Yingge (鶯歌) districts, and between Taoyuan’s Dasi (大溪) and Longtan (龍潭) districts on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3). Travel time is likely to triple from eight minutes to 24 minutes on the Hukou-Hsinchu section on Freeway No. 1, and quadruple from eight to 32 minutes on the Changhua-Puyan (埔鹽) section on Freeway No. 1, the bureau said. It is also expected to triple from 14 to 42 minutes on the Yingge-Guansi (關西) section on Freeway No. 3, more than double from 15 to 41 minutes on the Kuaiguan (快官)-Nantou section on Freeway No. 3, and increase from 11 to 55 minutes on the Nangang (南港)-Pinglin (坪林) section on Freeway No. 3, the bureau said.

  CRIME

  Court denies attack threats

  Online posts about a planned attack against the Taichung District Court are nothing but unsubstantiated rumors, court officials said on Friday. A person posted on the comment section of the district court’s Web site that the court had received information about a plan to attack court personnel using dangerous liquids or explosives, hence its request to bolster bailiff patrols. Li Chin-i (李慶義), head of the court building’s management committee, said that during last month’s building maintenance, access controls were stepped up as many construction workers were entering and exiting the building. However, it has not received any information about a planned attack, he said.

  POLITICS

  Tsai lauds MOS over pay

  President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday had breakfast with her aides at a MOS Burger restaurant in Taipei to show her support for the fast-food chain’s decision to give its employees a raise. The president wrote on Facebook that she wanted to treat her aides to breakfast after her year-end press conference on Friday, and when no one could decide where to go, she suggested MOS Burger to support the chain’s move to raise wages. MOS on Tuesday announced that it would give its employees an average pay hike of 4.2 percent, including a 5.3 percent increase for part-time workers to NT$140 per hour, starting tomorrow. The pay raise coincides with new minimum wage standards that are to take effect tomorrow, with the hourly rate rising to NT$140 and the monthly minimum increasing to NT$22,000.

  TRADE

  Southbound center opens

  A New Southbound Policy service center is to open on Tuesday, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said. The center is to provide New Southbound Policy planning and implementation, financial support, cultivation of talent, foreign cooperation, small and medium enterprises services and other information on related issues, the office said. The center’s main objective is to to help individuals or groups solve problems relating to the New Southbound Policy, Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) said. The center will bring together resources and views from all sectors to promote broader civic participation in the policy, the office said in a press release.
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