■ Society
Centenarians multiplying
Taiwan has 713 centenarians, with an average age of 101.7, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The ministry was publicizing the approaching Chungyang Festival, which falls on Oct. 22 this year and which has been used to honor senior citizens since 1966. The ministry said the oldest person in the country is a 120-year-old woman, while the oldest man is 109. Both live in Taipei. The number of centenarians jumped by 57 from last year, the report said, adding that 91 percent of centenarians are aged between 100 and 104. Women account for 496, or 69.6 percent, of the centenarians. By location, Taipei City boasts the largest number of centenarians at 150, followed by Taipei County at 100 and Taoyuan County at 59.
■ Crime
Trio nabbed in Thailand
Three Taiwanese men have been arrested for alleged drug-trafficking in Thailand after being found with 20kg of heroin, Thai police said yesterday. Kao Chih-ping, 35, Chiang Ching-huang, 47, and Chen Chien-hung, 42, said they had been hired to take the drugs to Taiwan where they had a street value of more than US$1 million, according to police. Police officers said they found a quarter of the haul yesterday in the luggage of one of the men as he was checking in at Bangkok's international airport for a flight returning to Taiwan. The other two were arrested during a raid at their apartment in Bangkok where the rest of the drugs were found.
■ Politics
PFP names candidates
The People First Party (PFP) yesterday unveiled its nomination list for legislators-at-large -- and Chairman James Soong(宋楚瑜), who had vowed to enter the legislature -- was not on it. The PFP, which estimates that it will win about seven at-large seats in December's legislative elections, nominated 16 candidates, mostly incumbents. Legislators Liu Yi-ju (劉憶如), Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄), Nelson Ku (顧崇廉), Chung Jung-chi (鍾榮吉) and Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官), along with Tainan County Farmers' Association chairman Tsai Sheng-chia (蔡勝佳) and lawyer Lee Fu-tien (李復甸), are the seven expected to win a seat at the elections. Meanwhile, Li Ao (李敖), the maverick commentator who was the New Party's presidential candidate in the 2000 election, yesterday announced that he will run as an independent in the southern electoral district of Taipei City.
■ Politics
TSU names candidates, too
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday announced its legislator-at-large nomination list. Annie Lee (李安妮), whose name has been mentioned as a possible candidate, was not nominated. She is the daughter of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Meanwhile, estimating that it would win at least five legislator-at-large seats, the TSU nominated national advisor to the president Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興), senior advisor to the National Security Council Lai Hsin-yuan (賴幸媛), TSU Legislator Huang Cheng-che (黃政哲), director general of the Taiwan Bar Association Kuo Lin-yung (郭林勇) and architect Chen Yin-ho (陳銀河). Additionally, the party's incumbent legislators-at-large, Wu Tong-sheng (吳東昇) and Cheng Cheng-lung (程振隆), voluntarily withdrew from the nomination process.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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