■ Business
Ohio delegation arriving
Ohio Governor Bob Taft will lead a large delegation to Taiwan today for a three-day visit, according to a press release issued yesterday by the American Institute in Taiwan. The group will be made up of about 50 representatives from more than 30 companies and organizations. The delegation will identify local companies interested in investing in Ohio, promote Ohio exports and build educational, social and cultural exchanges between Ohio and Taiwan. Taiwan is one of Ohio's top-20 export markets and is a growing source of advanced technology collaborations. Last year Ohio's exports to Taiwan were worth approximately US$201.48 million.
■ Politics
Activist quits KMT post
Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), president of the Modern Women's Foundation yesterday resigned her position as head of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) women's affairs department to concentrate on her legislative election campaign. Pan announced her resignation at KMT party headquarters in Taipei yesterday, promising to promote women's issues if she were elected. Pan said she would work for greater female representation in government, the establishment of a gender equality committee in the Executive Yuan, push for a birth health bill and initiate reforms to the Gender Equality Education Law (性別平等教育法). Pan said she would also push for the creation of a women's entrepreneurship fund.
■ Society
PTS holds racism seminar
A two-day seminar next month on ethnic conflict will provide a forum to talk about everyday experiences with racism, social welfare groups said yesterday. Sponsored by the Peacetime Foundation and the Reading Times Foundation, the forum will take a comprehensive look at ethnic conflict. The forum is co-sponsored by the Public Television Service. The seminar is entitled "The Words of the People" and will be held on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. People over the age of 16 are encouraged to register, and selected participants will have the chance to join small group discussions with experts. Participants will be representative of all levels and sectors of society, foundation representatives said. The seminar will be recorded by PTS and screened in November. To apply, see the seminar's Web page at www.pts.org.tw/php/vote/9309_pub/index.php. The fee is NT$5,000.
■ Judiciary
Phone records recovered
Prosecutors yesterday said they had acquired the mobile phone records of independent Legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) as part of an investigation into whether two grand justices attempted to persuade him to veto the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例). The probe was launched after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Tsung-yi (陳宗義) filed a slander suit on Sept. 22. Yesterday Chen visited Prosecutor-General Morley Shih (施茂林), asking that prosecutors summon him as well as Su as soon as possible, and claiming that "he also knew something about the case." Shih told Chen Tsung-yi that prosecutors were reviewing Su's phone records and would begin summoning witnesses at the appropriate time. After alleging the grand justices had tried to persuade him to veto the statute, Su refused to name them. Chen said Su had insulted the public and defamed the justices.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
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