■ MEDIA
Chinese journalists approved
Taiwan opened its doors to regional media outlets in China on Thursday, granting approval to a television station and a newspaper group from China’s Fujian Province to post journalists in Taiwan. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) gave a green light to the applications filed by DongNan TV and the Fujian Daily Group, allowing journalists from the TV station and from three affiliated newspapers of the Fujian Daily Group to cover news in Taiwan for up to three months per visit.
■ POLITICS
Lai visits protester
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) and legislators Twu Shiing-jer (??, Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) visited 80-year-old Liu Po-yan (劉柏煙) at National Taiwan University Hospital yesterday. Liu, who suffered second and third degree burns on 80 percent of his body on Tuesday after setting himself on fire in a protest at Liberty Square, was still in critical condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit yesterday, hospital officials said. DPP legislators donated cash to Liu’s family and told them that if they couldn’t afford the treatment costs, DPP members would help raise money. “At first, we were afraid [Liu’s family] would be offended by our visit, because we are DPP and Liu is not … But we felt we needed to [visit], especially since no one from the KMT went [to see him],” Tien said.
■ POLITICS
DPP official detained
Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lin Wen-lang (林文郎) was detained by Taichung prosecutors yesterday on suspicion of manipulating stock prices. Prosecutors were investigating another case of alleged stock manipulation concerning investor Chang Shih-chieh (張世傑) when they discovered Lin’s alleged crime. Prosecutors said evidence suggested Lin worked with Chang to manipulate the stock price of Ching Me Ke Long Chemical Co (金美克能化工公司), a cosmetics manufacturer. Prosecutors said Lin had given evidence on part of the case and they were trying to locate other potential witnesses and defendants.
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