■ Diplomacy
Paraguay ties firm: MOFA
Diplomatic relations between the Taiwan and Paraguay remain firm and solid, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said yesterday. Shih was responding to media reports that China has been lobbying Brazil to pressure Paraguay to switch its diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Shih said the reports were speculative. He said Taiwan-Paraguay relations are in good shape, noting that President Nicanor Duarte just concluded a state visit to Taipei late last month. After his return to Asuncion, Shih said, Duarte told the Paraguayan press that his visit was very fruitful and that the two countries will negotiate and sign a free-trade agreement within a year. Asked whether Paraguay is likely to yield to pressure from its Southern Common Market allies to switch its diplomatic allegiance, Shih said Duarte has reiterated on many public occasions that Paraguay's diplomatic ties with Taipei have contributed much to the country's economic development over the past decades.
■ Child Abuse
Yu speaks out
Premier Yu Shyi-kun issued a directive yesterday on the building of a nationwide information and rescue network for the protection of abused children. Speaking at the Executive Yuan, Yu said his heart went out to children who had been physically and mentally abused or had been deprived of human rights as a result of family crises. Yu instructed government agencies to address the matter by having specialists make field trips to communities and households as a first step toward building a nationwide network to protect youngsters. The premier said authorities must intervene to save mentally and physically abused children from families and institutions where economic, marital or social problems had made their environments hell.
■ Communications
People phone China a lot
China was the top destination last year for international calls placed from Taiwan, followed by the US and the Philippines, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. The statistics showed that Taiwanese people placed 3.08 billion minutes' worth of international calls last year -- an average of 8.43 million minutes per day, up 42.8 percent from the previous year's level. China was the destination for 0.99 billion minutes' worth of calls, or 32.1 percent of the total, followed by the US at 290 million minutes, the Philippines at 270 million minutes, Hong Kong and Macau at 240 million minutes and Thailand at 210 million minutes. A large number of Filipino and Thai laborers work in the country, contributing to those countries' high rankings.
■ Politics
Chen to fete lawyers
To express his appreciation to nearly 800 lawyers who aided the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the recount of votes cast in the presidential election, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will hold a series of banquets in Taichung, Kaohsiung and Taipei on July 4, 7 and 9, respectively. Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), director of the DPP's Information and Culture Department, announced yesterday that Chen would attend the banquets to thank the lawyers for their efforts in the 9-day recount, which set a record for the largest number of lawyers to be involved in a single legal proceeding.
■ Politics
DPP candidates queried
Questions have been raised about some of the 10 candidates the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)nominated on Tuesday for a Kaohsiung City Council by-election. Five candidates are family members or associates of three former city councilors convicted of election fraud in connection with the election of former City Council speaker Chu An-hsuing (朱安雄). Among the DPP's 10 candidates are Hsiao Yeh-chuan (蕭雅捐), who is the wife of former city councilor Chang Ching-chuan (張清泉). Chang was sentenced to 26 months in prison and expelled from the DPP in the vote-buying scandal. Candidate Chao Li-wen (趙麗文) is the wife of former city councilor Kao Tzeng-ying (高宗英) who was sentenced to a six-month jail term. DPP Legislator Lin Chin-hsing (林進興), who was cleared of charges, arranged for his sister Lin Mei-ling (林美玲) and his aides Lin Wu-chung (林武忠) and Cheng Kuang-feng (鄭光豐) to run in the by-
election. Lin Chin-hsing's ex-wife Chang Wen-hsiu (章玟琇), a former city councilor, was convicted of vote-buying in the speaker-election scandal.
■ Society
Man survives 12-story fall
An elderly man who plum-meted 12 stories to the ground after he fell from his apartment balcony while changing a lightbulb sur-vived with only minor bruises, reports said yesterday. Chang Shih-chi, 68, told cable network CTiTV he had lost his balance after suffering an electric shock, but his fall was broken as he bounced off a canvas awning, electric wiring and
a parked car. "The patient fell from the 12th floor to the ground without suffering major injuries. This is a miracle," said the doctor who treated Chang. TV footage showed Chang walking around a hospital ward in Taichung.
■ Society
Rules eased on spouses
Rules on residence appli-cations by Chinese spouses of Taiwanese have been eased after the Bureau of Immigration agreed to simplify the process, a bureau spokesman said yesterday. In the future, undisputed applications will be approved immediately after being examined by
the bureau, the spokesman said, adding that qualifying documents will not have to
be further processed in a joint screening meeting
and applicants will not have to go through an interview with immigration officials. According to the spokesman, the first joint screening meeting was held May 18 to scrutinize a total of 704 applications. Except for a small number of disputed cases, most of the applica-tions were approved at the meeting, he said.
■ Society
Andy going to rehab
The actor known as Andy (安迪) faces a 21-day drug rehabilitation program starting next Tuesday. Authorities have issued a summons requiring him to report that day to the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office, from where he will be transferred to the Taipei Detention House's rehabili-tation center in Panchiao. The summons stems from an incident last December in which Andy and his wife were videotaped taking drugs and having sex in a private KTV room. Six suspects who tried to use the video to blackmail the couple have been arrested and indicted. The blackmail attempt led prosecutors to conduct an analysis of Andy's hair, which confirmed that he had taken the drug MDMA (ecstasy). Andy's wife was cleared of having used drugs.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit
HOSPITAL VISITS: Shin Kong Mitsukoshi pledged to give the families of the four people who died NT$11m each and provide support for staff working at the time The central government would assist local governments to enhance public safety, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as he visited people in hospital who were injured in an explosion at a department store in Taichung on Thursday. A suspected gas explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang department store in Taichung at 11:33am on Thursday, killing four people and injuring 36. Of the 40 casualties, 39 were hospitalized, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed. Three died after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the data showed. As of 6am yesterday, 25 of those injured had been discharged from hospital, leaving 11
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