■ SOCIETY
Lofty name nixed
A household registration office has rejected a women's application to change her name to "Hung Occult God of Wealth President," on the grounds that one's name cannot contain "president." The Nantou County woman recently applied to the Tsaotun (草屯) Household Registration Office to change her name. "She was in her 30s. She did not tell us why she wanted to change her name," an official from Tsaotun Household Registration Office told reporters. "We rejected her application because it contains the word `president.' We told her that the name is not suitable but she can appeal our rejection," the official said. Under the law, a citizen's name must use Chinese characters listed in standard dictionaries. A citizen can change his or her name twice in a lifetime.
■ CRIME
Poet arrested for threats
Writer and poet Huang Jen-ho (黃人和), who publishes his work under the pseudonym Tu Shi-san (杜十三), was apprehended by the Taipei Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office yesterday afternoon for threatening Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in a drunken telephone call on Nov. 1. After being interrogated for three hours yesterday evening, Huang, 55, confessed to making the call in which he identified himself as a member of the Taiwan Liberation Alliance (台灣解放聯盟) and threatened to kill every member of Hsieh's family. He also said he regretted his actions and apologized to Hsieh. Hsieh in turn said he felt sorry for Huang and would not file a lawsuit against him. Hsieh said Taiwanese society has been polarized by political disputes and hatred. He urged people not to mimic such anti-social behavior and to solve problems through discussion.
■ POLITICS
Officials deny media report
The Presidential Office yesterday refuted a report by local Chinese-language media, which claimed that more than 400 staff working at the Presidential Office have been investigated because of alleged illegal conduct by former deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男). According to the Presidential Office's Department of Public Affairs, an Accounting Department official, Kao Shen-shen (高慎慎), is the only staff member to have been questioned. A probe into possible illegal conduct by Chen will be completed by Friday, and the results will be released then. It aims to determine whether any staff lent their personal bank accounts to Chen for his personal use.
■ DEFENSE
Legislators cut arms budget
Opposition lawmakers yesterday cut a proposed NT$272.62 million (US$8.1 million) outlay in preparation for a major arms procurement package from the Ministry of National Defense's (MND's) budget plan for next year, saying it is not necessary since the package is not yet certain. A joint meeting of the National Defense Committee and the Budget Committee of the Legislative Yuan was reviewing the budget when opposition legislators nixed the complementary spending for the arms package. The package proposes buying three Patriot missile batteries, eight diesel-electric submarines and 12 P-3C Orion aircraft. The legislators proposed cuts to the budget for Patriot missiles but will leave the matter to the next joint meeting. The items require preparatory spending on things such as administrative fees.
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
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
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