■ Education
Activist starts long walk
A lone education reform activist began a 300km journey yesterday to highlight his campaign against "the authoritarian education reform." Tung Chung-hua (董宗華), the self-claimed president of the self-salvation association of junior and senior high school education reform, began his walk from Taipei City Hall. Donning a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Say No to the Authoritarian Education Reform" and carrying a Taiwan map and two books in his backpack, Tung first walked to the Ministry of Education and staged a "stand-in" there for two hours. The officials of the Education Department of Taipei City Government and the education ministry received him and his written 10-point education reform statement. Tung plans to spend 15 to 18 days walking 20km a day through Taoyuan, Chungli, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Fengyuan, Taichung, Changhua, Tounan and Chiayi before reaching his destination of Tainan in southern Taiwan. He is expected to end his journey at the Confucian temple in Tainan where he will deliver his letters on education reform.
■ Crime
Police target street racing
Police started a three-day nationwide crackdown on car and motorcycle racing yesterday in the hope of curbing the resurgent problem of illegal racing on public roads. In addition to the mobilization of criminal and traffic police and Peace Preservation Police Corps, the National Police Administration (NPA) will also call in airborne police to help collect evidence through the use of advanced technology. The NPA is planning to arrest the race organizers and turn them over to prosecutors' offices on charges of hooliganism, a police spokesman said. Tiao Chien-sheng, an NPA traffic official, said that racers will be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$90,000 (US$869-US$608), have their licenses revoked and their vehicles impounded. The government will also consider opening legal race tracks so that the racers can have somewhere to race legally.
■ Crime
Cambodians arrest two men
Two Taiwanese men were arrested yesterday by Cambodian authorities at Phnom Penh International Airport when they attempted to board a Taipei-bound flight with what appeared to be around 8kg of opium. Customs officials at Phnom Penh International Airport said that two Taiwanese aged 25 and 27 were arrested at the security X-ray on their way to an EVA Air flight. Ministry of Interior spokesman General Sopheak said the drugs seized were being tested. If it proves to be opium the men could face up to 20 years in prison. Officials said the men had attempted to carry the opium onto the flight wrapped in plastic inside coconut oil-scented perfume boxes.
■ SARS
Temperature checks end
Temperature checks imposed in hospitals as a preventive measure against the re-emergence of SARS were completely lifted yesterday. Although the World Health Organization declared Taiwan SARS-free on July 5, the Department of Health required hospitals to continue temperature checks for 20 days to prevent a re-appearance of the bug. Temperature checks present in entrances of most buildings could also be lifted as of yesterday. The 20-day temperature checks were not a compulsory measure. But most hospitals and buildings followed the department's suggestions closely. Temperature checks at CKS International Airport will continue.
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