■Culture
Aussie festival starts today
Dream Community (夢想社區) in Taipei's Hsichih (汐止) district is scheduled to launch a cultural event, entitled Australian Community Culture Festival, at the community center this afternoon. According to the community's spokesperson, Pika Chiu (邱坤定), the event is held to introduce the spirit of "bushcraft" -- or outdoor skills. The community hopes to better the Taiwanese people's understanding of wildness survival skills, so as to improve their creativity and interaction society. It also hopes to show the nation's vitality to international society through such cross-cultural exchanges. The event officially begins at 3pm today. An Australian-style barbecue is also scheduled to be held at 6:30pm. For more information, please contact the community at (02) 2695-9393.
■ Mask shortage
Lien gives masks to hospital
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday donated 7,000 surgical masks to National Taiwan University Hospital to help physicians and nurses there combating SARS. Lee Cheng-chung (李正宗), head of the KMT's social department said the masks were donated to the hospital because of the grave situation it faces in fighting the disease as well as the mask shortage faced by its frontline medical staff. On Thursday, Lien's wife, Lien Fang-yu (連方瑀), accused the government of acting like "bandits" when she went to the CKS Airport to pick up 2,000 surgical masks donated by overseas Chinese. She was asked on the spot to pay a tax of NT$23,000 for them. Upset by the tax, Lien Fang-yu called on the government to issue an emergency decree lifting steep duties on the masks.
■ Happy meals
Workers get free lunch
To cheer up medical staff from Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital (和平醫院) who are currently under SARS quarantine at Taipei's Keeho Public Housing Complex (基河國宅), McDonald's Taiwan is scheduled to deliver free meals to staffers at noon. According to the Taiwan branch of the fast-food giant, the company is scheduled to deliver special toys and hot meals to the housing complex, so as to show its support to those medical workers. In related news, the Eurasian Publishing Group (圓神) also announced that the company is willing to donate one free book to each of the SARS quarantinees in order to help them undergo the quarantine.
■ Casualties
Kaohsiung doctor dies
Lin Yung-hsiang (林永祥), a resident doctor at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in southern Taiwan, died of SARS yesterday, becoming the second doctor in Taiwan to succumb to the atypical pneumonia. Lin's death came a day after Lin Chung-wei (林重威), a resident at the sealed off Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital, fell victim to the highly contagious disease at a Taipei hospital. Chang Gung Memorial Hospital President Chen Chao-lung (陳肇隆) said Lin contracted the virus while caring for a patient from Taipei's Jenchi Hospital -- the second Taiwan medical facility to have been sealed off due to a SARS outbreak. Lin began to show SARS symptoms May 4, Chen said, adding that the hospital had formed an expert team to treat Lin. "We made every possible effort, but to no avail," he said regretfully. Chen praised Lin as a "warrior in white" in the nation's current campaign against SARS. Lin, 28, graduated from Kaohsiung Medical College. He got married less than a year ago.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard