■ HEALTH
Taichung City offers chickens
The Taichung City Government will start selling free-range chickens raised on organic feed on a trial basis from next month, Environmental Protection Department chief Lee Li-teh (李立德) said yesterday. Lee said the chickens would not contain any antibiotic residue or growth hormones and would be marketed over the Internet. The chickens are the result of a two-year experiment on a local farm, raising chickens on table scraps provided by Lee’s department. During the promotional period, each chicken will cost NT$450 and only 50 chickens will be sold per month, Lee said during a news conference with the Taichung City Farmers Association. The chickens take more than six months to raise in order to ensure their meat is tasty, he said.
■ DIPLOMACY
ICDF looking for volunteers
The Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) is seeking 90 volunteers to take part in humanitarian missions to the nation’s diplomatic allies. Over the past 14 years, ICDF has sent more than 400 volunteers on long-term and short-term medical, agriculture, financial and environmental projects. Volunteers must be at least 20 years old, a Republic of China citizen, have a college degree or five years’ work experience in a related field. English-speaking ability is preferred. Volunteers will receive three months of training, a roundtrip ticket and a monthly stipend between US$400 and US$700, depending on their posting. Applications are being accepted until Monday.
■ POLITICS
Officials seek special status
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (?]) and other Tainan politicians called on the Executive Yuan yesterday to merge the city and county and upgrade them to a special municipality. They talked to Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday, but did not receive a commitment. Liu said the government would approve applications of county and city mergers in accordance with the Local Government Act (地方制度法). Hsu said the government’s plan to establish three special municipalities — Taipei City, Kaohsiung City and Taichung County/City — and 15 counties would hurt Tainan County and Tainan City. “Tainan County and Tainan City have been marginalized in the past,” he said. “Kaohsiung developed fast because of Kaohsiung Harbor, and Taichung’s growth was a result of the [former] provincial government. Tainan, however, has been oppressed by politics.” Su said upgrading the status of Tainan County and City would facilitate unity in the country because “they are the origins of the country’s culture and history.”
■ POLITICS
Kang takes office
Newly elected Independent Legislator Kang Shih-ju (康世儒) assumed office yesterday and joined the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) caucus. Caucus whip Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤) said the NPSU would continue to oppose wrangling between the pan-blue and pan-green camps. Kang was elected in a March 14 by-election in Miaoli after he beat Chen Luan-ying (陳鑾英), wife of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lee Yi-ting (李乙廷). Kang, chief of Chunan Township (竹南), gave up his KMT membership to run in the by-election. Lee, who was elected as a first-term lawmaker in January last year, lost his seat on Dec. 10 after the Taichung branch of the High Court rejected his appeal of a Miaoli District Court conviction on vote buying.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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