CRIME
Signature suspects indicted
Three suspects, including a hotel operator in Kinmen County, have been indicted for allegedly buying signatures for tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) to help him gain endorsements needed to run in the presidential election. The hotel operator, surnamed Lin (林), entrusted two of his female employees with NT$40,000 (US$1,289) to collect 200 signatures for Gou’s petition drive in October last year, the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement yesterday. Using the money, the two decided to pay people NT$100 apiece for their signatures, and collected 156, prosecutors said. However, some people who gave their signatures complained of not receiving the promised payout, prosecutors said, adding that the two employees later pocketed NT$29,000 of the NT$40,000 Lin gave them. The three suspects were later questioned, with Lin taken into custody and his employees released on NT$100,000 and NT$50,000 bail respectively after questioning, prosecutors said. Under Article 87 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), those found guilty of offering cash payments or other undue benefits in exchange for signatures could face a jail sentence of one to seven years and a fine of between NT$1 million and NT$10 million.
FOREIGN AID
Rice given to Philippines
The government donated 1,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines for disaster relief on Thursday. The donation was made through Representative to the Philippines Wallace Chow (周民淦), and received by Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan Chairman and Resident Representative Silvestre III Hernando Bello. Chow said several typhoons hit the Philippines, severely compromising rice production in some provinces and leading to a shortage. Taiwan has promised to donate a total of 2,000 tonnes of rice, the first batch being on Thursday, with another 1,000 tonnes to be handed over when the need arises, Chow said. Bello said that Taiwan’s donation would help disadvantaged and vulnerable Filipinos. Bello added that Taiwan’s minimum wage increase from NT$26,400 to NT$27,470 this year benefited 120,000 Filipino factory migrant workers and is significant to them.
CULTURE
Writer Ma Sen passes
The Ministry of Culture paid its respects to writer, playwright and literary critic Ma Sen (馬森), who died in Canada on Dec. 3 at 91 years old, it said in a statement on Thursday. Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said Ma’s knowledge spanned the Chinese-speaking world and the West. He wrote contemporary novels and plays with a sharp, vivid style, showing care for literature and society, Shih said. Isolation (孤絕), the title of one of his novels, has become synonymous with the modern individual and left a mark on readers, Shih added. Ma’s works were heavily influenced by existentialism and focused on the lonely Taiwanese soul amid East-West cultural conflicts, the ministry said. Ma’s one-act plays often centered on family conflicts and the individual’s struggle to escape traditional confines, introducing absurdism to Taiwan and the Sinophone world, it said. Born as Ma Fu-hsing (馬福星) in 1932 in China, Ma came to Taiwan in 1949. He obtained degrees at National Taiwan Normal University, Canada’s University of British Columbia and the University of Paris. He co-founded and was editor-in-chief of Europe Magazine with classmates in France. He taught at several universities in Taiwan and abroad, while working as editor-in-chief at Unitas Publishing Co.
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