FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Medic team to aid Ukraine
A volunteer medical team composed of Taiwanese members of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association is to leave for Ukraine today to provide medical services for local residents. Led by physician Tsai Jung (蔡榮), the 11-member team is to stay in Ukraine until Wednesday next week. Aside from providing humanitarian aid, the team would show that Taiwan stands with Ukraine, physician Lin Jung-sung (林榮松) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Legislative Speaker You Si-kun praised the team’s efforts and said that they demonstrate the “Taiwanese spirit.” United Microelectronics Corp founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠) has donated NT$10 million (US$313,735) to support the kindness of the team. Ukrainians have united to defend their country against Russia’s aggression, which should inspire Taiwan to come together in the face of the threats posed by China, Tsao said.
TRANSPORT
Umbrella-sharing launched
The Taipei MRT system yesterday launched an umbrella-sharing service across its stations, allowing people to rent umbrellas and return them at different sites. A total of 266 umbrella service sites have been set up at the MRT’s 117 stations, operator Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said. The rental fee is NT$19 for the first hour, NT$29 for the second, with a 24-hour cap of NT$39, it said. If the umbrella is not returned after one day, an additional NT$20 would be charged every 24 hours thereafter, it added. If the user has not returned the umbrella after 14 days, or an umbrella is vandalized or lost, the user would be charged NT$799, it said. Users can select various payment methods after downloading the Raingo app on their smartphone or tablet and registering by providing personal information such as a phone number and e-mail address, it said. Users who register successfully before the end of this month and enter a special discount number would receive two coupons, each one allowing them to rent an umbrella free for a 24-hour period, it added.
RETAIL
Eslite to open largest store
Eslite Spectrum is to open its largest branch in Asia at the Yulong City mall in New Taipei’s Sindian District (新店) on Sept. 28, it announced yesterday. In a press statement, the leisure and lifestyle retailer said the 19,000 ping (62,810m2) branch is to occupy B1 to the 4th floor at the mall, and would feature almost 250 vendors. The branch is to hold a soft opening ahead of its formal opening on Sept. 28, the company said. Eslite said it expects the Sindian branch to become its highest-earning location, and to help make up for profits lost when it closes its branch in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) in December. The company has previously said that when the Xinyi store closes, it would move the location’s designated 24-hour bookstore branch to its store in Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. Eslite added that it is planning to start the phased opening of a new branch in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) in October, which at 7,500 ping, would be its largest store in central and southern Taiwan.
LEISURE
Cijin Beach closed
The Port of Kaohsiung’s operator on Sunday closed off Cijin Beach (旗津海水浴場) pending cleanup, one day after beachgoers reported finding tar balls washed up in a swimming area and along the shoreline. Taiwan International Ports Corp said the beach would be closed for at least three days to complete the cleanup before the forecast arrival tomorrow of Typhoon Saola. After closing off the beach at 6am, contract workers managed to clean up about 12kg of tar balls from the beach by the afternoon, leaving only scattered traces behind, the operator said. The pollution could have leaked from the container ship Angel, which sank about 5km outside the harbor on July 21, but further investigation was needed to confirm the source, it said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
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