■ TRANSPORTATION
DGH helps bus operators
The Directorate General of Highways (DGH) said on Friday it would subsidize bus operators in southern Taiwan by giving them NT$630 million (US$19 million) to provide bus services to some of the nation's remotest areas. The announcement came after five bus companies in the south threatened to cease operations if the government failed to fully compensate them for their losses. They had said they would stop servicing 150 routes starting on Dec. 22. DGH Director General James Chen (陳晉源) said on Friday records showed the bus operators had only applied to terminate operations on 89 routes. Service could only be stopped seven months after approval of an application, he said. Chen said the directorate has raised the subsidy this year from NT$530 million to NT$630 million. The sum fell short of bus operators' hopes of receiving NT$890 million. The directorate will sit down with bus operators on Tuesday to look for solutions.
■ EVENTS
Aboriginal exhibit opens
The Ilan County Government yesterday opened a two-day exhibition to demonstrate the county's achievements in helping Aborigines develop production industries. The exhibition is being held at the Ilan County Cultural Center and an adjoining plaza. It features more than 30 stalls presenting various aspects of the lives of Aborigines. Some of the stalls display farm products and handicrafts produced by Aborigines, while others feature Atayal delicacies. County government officials said the exhibition is intended to create sales opportunities for Aborigines and increase the competitiveness of their products in the hope of creating jobs and improving their livelihoods.
■ CONSERVATION
Fishing vessel flouts ban
Coast guard officers boarded a fishing boat on Friday night and discovered a whale shark that had been cut up into several pieces, a spokesman for the Eastern Coastal Patrol Office said yesterday in Taitung County. Although whale sharks are not on the list of protected animals, the Fisheries Agency began to limit the number of whale sharks that can be caught in 2001 after discovering that whale shark numbers off the eastern coast had dropped off dramatically as a result of overfishing. An annual quota was set that year, which has since been reviewed and adjusted where necessary. This year, the whale shark hunting quota was set at 30, half last year's level. The spokesman said that this year's quota was reached in July. A ban on whale shark fishing came into effect on Nov. 1 and will remain in place until the end of this year, he said.
■ FOOD
Bones found in US beef
The Department of Health said yesterday that two bone fragments were found in a shipment of imported US beef, marking the third such case within the last two weeks. Hsieh Ting-hung (謝定宏), deputy director of the department's Bureau of Food Safety, said the beef was from Colorado-based Swift Beef Co, which has been banned by the department from shipping its products to Taiwan since Nov. 27. However, he said that as the beef in question was already on its way to Taiwan in the middle of last month, the department accepted the application for inspection from the Taipei importer. The two pieces of bone fragments measured 2.4cm and 4.8cm, Hsieh said, adding that the importer will now have to send back or destroy the shipment. Two bone fragments were also found in a Swift Beef Co shipment late last month.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its