■ Ties with Russia
Taiwan helps terror victims
The Taiwan-Russia Exchange Association yesterday donated US$16,000 to relatives of those who died during October's Moscow theater siege in what organizers said is a move to enhance bilateral ties. Vladislav Verchenko, representative of the Moscow-Taipei Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission, received the donation yesterday morning in downtown Taipei from Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), Chairman of the Taiwan-Russia Exchange Association. The association is a non-governmental organization set up in late July to boost Taipei-Moscow ties. More than 120 hostages -- as well as all 41 Chechen militants -- were killed when Russian special forces gassed and stormed the theater on Oct. 26. Eight former hostages and relatives of those who died during the siege have begun legal moves to seek a total compensation of US$7.5 million from the city authorities for their emotional suffering in the wake of the siege.
■ Defense
Air-raid drill set for Tuesday
An air-raid warning drill is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in the Taiwan and offshore Penghu areas to test the country's warning system, Air Force General Headquarters said. As Tuesday's drill is not part of the annual "Wan An" air-defense exercise, only the monotone all-clear siren will be sounded for one and a half minutes, during which pedestrians will not be required to get off the streets and drivers will not need to follow air-raid procedures, the Air Force said. Should a real attack occur during the drill, Air Force officials said, the drill would be suspended immediately and an emergency air-raid siren would be sounded in accordance with required procedures. The emergency air-raid signal is a monotone sound lasting for 15 seconds, followed by two shorter ones, each lasting for five seconds. The pattern is repeated three times with two five-second intervals, the officials said. The Air Force said the exercise is designed to heighten awareness of the threat from "the enemy" and to maintain the public's full preparedness in terms of air defense.
■ Politics
Ma has plans for airport
Taipei's Sungshan Airport, near the Neihu Science-Technology Park located in the city's northeastern suburb, will be remodeled as a materials-distribution center for northern Taiwan, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday. Ma said he will also seek the support of the central government in designating Sungshan Airport as Taiwan's representative airport once direct air links across the Taiwan Strait are opened. The mayor made the remarks during a ceremony marking the inauguration of the service center of the Neihu Science-Technology Park. The Neihu Science-Technology Park, a "Silicon Valley" in Taipei City with an increasing number of high-technology companies moving in, is expected to become fully operational in 2006.
■ Emergencies
Toll-free number for all
A toll-free number open to overseas Taiwanese in times of emergency will be institutionalized starting from next year after a successful trial during the past year-and-a-half, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. Taiwanese travelers in some 18 countries as well as in Hong Kong and Macau can ring up the number available 24 hours a day when unable to reach Taiwan's pertinent overseas representative offices in times of emergency, the ministry said in a press release.
Agencies
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift