■ AVIATION
CAL fined over cargo
China Airlines (CAL) was fined NT$200,000 yesterday for failing to apply to ship 15 loads of iridium-192 to Singapore, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said yesterday. The shipment originated from the US and was bound for Singapore, the AEC said. According to Management of Radioactive Material, Equipment Capable of Producing Ionizing Radiation and Practice regulations, shipments that transfer through Taiwan and contain radioactive material must be approved by the AEC beforehand. Failure to abide by the regulations can result in fines of between NT$600,000 and NT$3 million (US$90,000). CAL said it had applied for approval to ship hazardous items, but because of a lack of experience did not realize it also had to apply to ship radioactive materials. Taking this into consideration, the AEC lowered the fine.
■ CRIME
Pageant probed
Prosecutors said yesterday they were investigating claims that a pageant organizer conned a beauty contest by claiming that his Australian models came from various countries. Models claiming to be from 24 countries took part in the contest in Taiwan last week, but organizer Huang Chih-hui (黃智慧) later found that at least nine women, including ethnic Bosnian winner Esma Voloder, were from Australia. Huang said she had been fooled by the scam, having paid for airfares, hotel accommodation and other activities for the women for what was supposed to be an international event. A spokesman for Taoyuan District Prosecutor’s Office said it was probing fraud and document forgery charges against Australian organizer Gavin Dooley.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Hu takes bus to work
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) commuted to work by public bus yesterday — the first day of the city’s six-month free public bus program to promote the bus system. The city’s transport department began offering two free bus packages, which will run through Nov. 17 and include offering users of the “Taiwan Easy Go” free bus rides on seven newly launched routes along the city’s planned Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) system’s proposed lines. The other package grants card-users the right to ride public buses downtown free of charge between 7am and 9am and from 5pm to 7pm Monday to Friday, the city government said. Speaking at City Hall, Hu told senior officials he was satisfied with the new program.
■ SPORTS
Miaoli cyclist wins challenge
An Olympic cyclist from Miaoli County won the men’s category of a 72km bicycle challenge on the new Cross-Island Highway in central Taiwan on Sunday. A total of 4,711 athletes took part in the event, which was divided into two parts — a competition group of 170 contestants, including 30 from overseas and a challenge group of 4,541 cyclists. The foreign cyclists came from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The race started at Shuili Junior High School at 5am and the cyclists rode uphill along Highway 21 to the finish at the Tatajia Tourist Center in Yushan National Park. Feng Chun-kai (馮俊凱), 21, an Olympic athlete and a student at National Taiwan Sport University, completed the race along the winding mountain road in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 29 seconds to take the first prize. In the women’s category, Tseng Hsiao-chia (曾筱嘉), 22, from Taichung County, captured the title, completing the route in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 8 seconds.
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