■ HEALTH
Octopus balls melamine-free
Taichung County’s Public Health Bureau said yesterday that samples from a recent shipment of octopus balls from Shandong Province in China were found to be free of melamine after samples of the shipment in question were sent to the Bureau of Food and Drug Analysis for testing. The Department of Health has ordered the importer to halt sales of the octopus balls — a popular round dumpling — as a precautionary measure after trace amounts of melamine were discovered in similar products tested in Japan. The department had asked Kaohsiung County to check the octopus balls, which were imported by a company registered in the county, but county officials found they had already been sold to a distributor in Taichung County. The imported shipment came from a different supplier than those found to have problems in Japan, which originated from Fujian Province.
■ CRIME
Amphetamine plant raided
Police raided an amphetamine production facility in Pingtung County’s Chaojhou Township (潮州) on Thursday night, arresting two suspects and seizing nearly 55kg of partly processed amphetamine and production equipment. Chaojhou Township police said yesterday that the partly processed amphetamine had an estimated street value of about NT$100 million (US$3.07 million). A 26-year-old man surnamed Chou and a 20-year-old surnamed Wang were arrested, police said. After receiving a tip, police said they staked out the suspected amphetamine production facility in Chaojhou for 20 days before carrying out the raid on Thursday night. Police said the two men rented the place last year and began producing amphetamines at the site about two months ago.
■ CULTURE
228 park to host concert
The Taipei City Government will hold a memorial concert for musician Lu Chuan-sheng, (呂泉生), a well-known composer of the 1940s and 1950s, at 6:30pm today in the Taipei 228 Memorial Park after Lu passed away earlier this year. Traditional Taiwanese folksongs, such as If I Open My Eyes and Mind (阮若打開心內的門窗) and Lullaby (搖嬰仔歌), were written by Lu, reflecting Taiwan’s situation during World War II. He also collected and preserved many Taiwanese folksongs including Diu-Diu Dang (丟丟銅). The concert will run until 9:30pm. Concertgoers are welcome to visit the 228 Memorial Museum, where original manuscripts of Lu’s compositions are on display.
■ EDUCATION
APEC camp awards prizes
Two young Taiwanese adults received top prizes for their research papers on the country’s water culture at an APEC camp, the National Youth Commission (NYC) said in a statement yesterday. The two winners, a man and a woman in their 20s, won the awards at the 2008 APEC Youth Camp, an event held under the framework of the APEC forum in Peru from Oct. 1 to Oct. 6. The theme of the camp was “Caring for Sustainable Development in the Asia-Pacific Region.” Among the four-member delegation, Cheng Yu-hsung’s (鄭佑軒) thesis on renovating Love River (愛河) in Kaohsiung City garnered the Best Essay Award, while Wang Chih-hua (王芷華) won the prize for the Most Interesting Essay with a paper on coastal water resources in Chiayi County.
■ SCIENCE
Birthday open day planned
Academia Sinica will celebrate its 80th birthday on Oct. 25 by inviting the public to have some fun with its academicians and staff at an open day. A press statement issued by Academia Sinica in Taipei yesterday said the open day would include 31 popular science lectures — including one given by academician Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), former minister of the National Science Council, titled “Environments, Genes and Human Diseases” — as well as a jazz-classic fusion concert and a children’s show. Visitors would also be able to tour the 46 core science facilities at the center, including the Genomics Research Center, or take a ride in the experimental car at the Institute of Earth Sciences, the statement said. Those interested in finding out more can read more information on the open day at www.sinica.edu.tw.
■ EDUCATION
Free school lunches mulled
Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) said yesterday that his ministry hopes to be able to provide free lunches to all elementary and junior high school students by 2010. Cheng made the remarks at a question-and-answer session of the Education and Culture Committee at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, during which the issue of children from underprivileged families who are unable to afford the lunch fees at schools was raised. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) said the government had been generous in its funding of the nation’s top universities and that it should also find the money to fund a free lunch program in all elementary and junior high schools. Pressed by Tsai on when free lunches would be possible, Cheng said the education budget for next year had already been appropriated, but that he was looking at implementing some sort of program in 2010. The latest government statistics showed that around 140,000 students, 5.6 percent of the elementary and junior high school student population, were not able to afford to pay for school lunches.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
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