■ 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
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching