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Taiwan quick take

Transport: Russian carrier finishes trip
Russian charter carrier Transaero has made its first round-trip flight between Moscow and Taipei, company officials said yesterday. The plane left Moscow on Saturday and returned late Sunday, officials said. ITAR-TASS reported that Transaero director Sergei Bykhalo was on board the Boeing 767 jet. The first Russian commercial flight to Taipei came just over a week after China Airlines launched its first direct charter flight between Taipei and Moscow. Both countries have voiced hopes of beginning regular commercial flights next year. Taiwan and Russia signed a draft aviation pact in 1993 but it was never formalized due to pressure from Beijing.

Health: Cancer patients on expedition
A group of people who have suffered from cancer are on a journey to scale Yushan -- Taiwan's highest peak at 3,952m. The event is mainly designed to enrich the lives of cancer patients and help enhance their self-confidence in overcoming challenges and adversities in their lives, said Wang Kai (王愷), chief executive of the ROC Cancer Patients New Life Association, which organized the four-day journey. Nearly 100 cancer patients and their families are taking part in the expedition. They left Taipei for Chiayi County yesterday aboard two tour buses. They are scheduled to start their climb from Tatachiaanpu (塔塔加鞍部) today and will stay at a lodge just below Yushan's top tonight for final preparations for climbing to the summit early tomorrow.

Overseas Chinese: Commission rejects claim
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission yesterday said that "it had never been involved" with or promised any form of sponsorship to a recent business tour organized by the World's Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce to Australia. In a press released yesterday, the commission said that Julie Chiang (江盈慧), vice president of the World's Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, organized a nine-day "Oceanic business and culture tour" to Australia and told prospective participants that the commission would subsidize each participant's trip by NT$20,000. It was only after the trip was over that the 10 participants discovered that they were not going to receive any subsidy. In its press release, the commission denied it had been informed of the trip and stressed that had not promised to give any kind of subsidy to a business tour organized by Chiang.

Foreign aid: Volunteer group returns
A group of medical volunteers returned to Taiwan yesterday after concluding nearly a month of free medical services in a Peruvian village deep in the Amazon rainforest. Liu Chi-chun (劉啟群), president of the Taiwan Roots Medical Peace Corps (TRMPC), said the trip was a new experience for all the team members as they were working in a village without roads. Quoting residents of the Huam Pami village, Liu said the TRMPC was the first international medical group in nearly a decade to have entered the village to offer free services to the tribal people living there. "Although several international medical organizations have conducted feasibility studies on offering free medical services for Huam Pami residents over the past decade, they all dropped their volunteer plans due to logistics problems," said Liu, a dentist. Some 1,000 people live in Huam Pami and the surrounding rainforest, which takes 35 hours to reach from Lima, Liu said.

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