GOVERNMENT
Professor joins council
A National Dong Hwa University assistant professor has been named the new deputy head of the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Cabinet said in a statement yesterday. Chen Chang Pei-lun (陳張培倫), who works in the university’s Department of Indigenous Development and Social Work, will assume the post that former council deputy head Kao Yang-sheng (高揚昇) left on July 31 to take over as Deputy Taoyuan County Magistrate. Chen Chang, a member of the Bunun group whose Aboriginal name is Tunkan Tansikian, has spent many years researching the rights of indigenous peoples and served as a consultant to the council, the Cabinet said.
TECHNOLOGY
Taipei inks city domain deal
The Taipei City Government yesterday signed a registry agreement with the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to open the top-level domain suffix “.taipei” for registration in November, according to the Taipei Department of Information Technology. The agreement was signed in the capital by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and ICANN board member Wu Kuo-wei (吳國維). Hau said Web sites for the special 1999 phone line for city residents and the public bicycle rental system YouBike would be among the first to adopt the “.taipei” suffix. Yesterday’s deal brings to 14 the number of Taiwanese cities to have secured their own top-level domains, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
GOVERNMENT
Ma vows to help firefighters
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Tuesday promised to give full support to the nation’s firefighters, who have complained of a lack of equipment and a shortage of manpower. Ma made the remarks at a ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) meeting after about 100 firefighters petitioned the Ministry of the Interior on Monday asking the government to improve their working conditions. Six firefighters died in the Greater Kaohsiung pipeline explosions caused by propene leaks on July 31 and Aug. 1, while another was injured on Friday last week in a gas explosion at an apartment in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店). The petitioners called on the government to give them more higher-quality equipment and increase personnel, among other demands, so they can do their jobs better and more safely.
DIPLOMACY
Taiwan role model: Widodo
Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo has cited Taiwan as a role model for his country, saying that advances in Taiwan’s human resources have led to high productivity. Manpower development is the biggest challenge facing Indonesia, Widodo said at a forum in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Monday, describing the situation as a matter that must be dealt with, according to a report on detik.com, an Indonesian online news portal. Widodo said he shares the views of Indonesian writer Mochtar Lubis on the weaknesses of Indonesians, including hypocrisy, lack of a sense of responsibility, being superstitious and lacking courage. Another characteristic needing work is a lack of attention to quality, Widodo said. He said he relates to that well, based on his past experience working in furniture exports, which left him with an impression of the little importance Indonesians attach to quality. However, it is possible for Indonesia to catch up with countries such as Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, whose people are highly productive, through education, the Jakarta governor said. The changes are vital to the country’s productivity and competitiveness, he said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
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