■ TRANSPORTATION
Free bus trial to begin
Starting tomorrow, the Kao-hsiung City Government will begin offering free bus rides on Thursdays on a trial basis, the city government said yesterday. The city’s Transportation Bureau issued a press release saying that bus rides on the city’s 82 bus routes would be free of charge every Thursday for three months. It said the city hopes to encourage more residents to use public transportation. The city government will also offer passengers free rides on six of the city’s holiday sightseeing bus routes, including one along the city’s coast line, one to the city’s Cijin District (旗津) and one to the city’s old neighborhood in Yencheng District (鹽埕). The buses will operate every Saturday and Sunday, the bureau said. The bureau said that although both free ride schemes are expected to increase the city government’s expenditure by NT$30 million (US$988,000), the plans are expected to help reduce carbon dioxide emission by 170 tonnes.
■ POLITICS
Exam yuan may face cuts
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday urged the Presidential Office to support his proposal to halve the size of the Examination Yuan. Tsai highlighted the financial benefits to the public if the Examination Yuan were downsized from 21 people to 9 people. He said the annual salary of each member of the Examination Yuan is about NT$5 million. Halving the government branch would help the government save about NT$50 million every year, he said. Given the Presidential Office’s promotion of government frugality, the Examination Yuan should also be halved “like the Legislative Yuan was,” he said. Tsai said legislators across party lines had reached a consensus regarding the proposal, but the legislature had yet to schedule the bill for a preliminary review because of opposition from the Presidential Office.
■ DIPLOMACY
Ma meets Holy See officials
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) met the Holy See’s new charge d’affaires in Taiwan, Monsignor Paul Fitzpatrick Russell, and his predecessor, Monsignor Ambrose Madtha, at the Presidential Office yesterday. During the meeting, Ma said that relations between Taiwan and the Vatican have been harmonious, adding that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) visited the Holy See in May 2005 to attend the late Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Fitzpatrick Russell was named the Vatican’s new diplomatic representative to Taiwan early last month, after Madtha was named Apostolic Nuncio to Ivory Coast in West Africa. Ma said that relations between Taiwan and the Vatican were very close during Ambrose’s five-plus years as the Holy See’s representative, adding that he would be missed by everyone in Taiwan. The president also welcomed the new representative. The Vatican is the only state in Europe that diplomatically recognizes Taiwan.
■ HEALTH
Boy dies of enterovirus
A two-year-old boy in Taichung County has died of serious enterovirus infection, making him the country’s fifth victim of the disease so far this year, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday. The DOH’s Centers for Disease Control was expected to hold a news conference later yesterday to announce whether an enterovirus outbreak alert would be issued with an increased response level. Enterovirus is a virus that enters the body through the gastrointestinal tract, where it thrives.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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