■ CRIME
Banned pesticides found
Authorities have uncovered a total of 80 tonnes of banned or substandard pesticides smuggled from China on sale around Taiwan, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. The pesticides, which were being sold at 20 pesticide shops nationwide, include long-banned fentin acetate, a lethal weapon against crop-depleting apple snails, as well as 10 other categories of counterfeit pesticides such as cyromazine, acetamiprid and bismerthiazol, officials from the council’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said.
■ DIPLOMACY
New envoys appointed
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday announced the appointment of several new ambassadors to the nation’s diplomatic allies in the South Pacific, as well as representatives to two European countries. Benjamin Ho (何登煌), now deputy head of Taiwan’s representative office in Singapore, will become an ambassador to Kiribati, while Jason Wan (萬家興), currently serving in Canada, will be reassigned to lead the embassy in the Pacific island nation of Nauru. T.S. Cheng (鄭天授) and Abraham Chu (朱文祥) will head the nation’s representative offices in Finland and Sweden, the ministry said. Foreign Minister Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) expressed hope that, following President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) call to prioritize economic issues in diplomacy, the two new delegates to the Scandinavian countries could help Taiwanese companies seek business opportunities there.
■ IMMIGRATION
Airport system crashes again
The immigration computer system at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport experienced another breakdown yesterday morning, lasting 20 minutes. Added to the two more serious breakdowns suffered last month, yesterday’s incident marked the third system breakdown this year. National Immigration Agency Deputy Director-General Huang Pi-hsia (黃碧霞) said that yesterday’s incident happened because of a system database capacity shortage when the agency was converting files in the database. No flight delays were caused as a result of the incident and no one banned from leaving or entering the country passed immigration during the 20-minute stoppage.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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