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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Weather
Cold front coming
A cold front is set to arrive tomorrow, bringing rain to the north, northeast and east of the country, the Central Weather Bureau forecast yesterday. Meteorologists said the weather today will be cloudy and hot in most areas, with a slight chance of showers in the mountainous areas of northeast, center and south. Temperatures will range from a low of 240C to a high of 320C, they said.

■ Health
SARS photo exhibit opens
Kuo San-dar (郭聖達), director of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital's emergency ward yesterday presented photographs he took during the SARS outbreak in April. Attempting to capture the uncertainty and chaos that had plagued the hospital during that time, Kuo said his exhibit an effort to preserve history. He said that as a doctor he was able to photograph many scenes not open to the public. "I made it a point to take pictures of the emergency room staff while I could because I didn't know if they would still be around the next day. Things changed very quickly," he said. The photo exhibit will be at the Taiwan International Visual Arts Center in Taipei through Oct. 23.

■ Diplomacy
Trade show promotes ties
An African handicraft trade fair opened at the Far Eastern Plaza Shopping Mall in Taipei yesterday to promote trade and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and its African allies. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and Malawian President Bakili Muluzi beat drums to mark the opening of the fair. Chen said he was pleased to see a special trade show to help boost trade ties with the nation's African allies. Seven countries -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal and Swaziland -- are exhibiting handicrafts reflecting their own unique cultural traditions. Coffee, tea and other products from the countries are also on sale.

■ Diplomacy
Group expands aid efforts
The Taiwan Roots Medical Peace Corps will send a team of medical professionals to offer volunteer service in the Philippines later this month, the group's founder said yesterday. Liu Chi-chun (劉啟群), a dentist who founded the corps eight years ago to offer volunteer medical services in Taiwan's aboriginal communities or other developing countries, said a 16-member medical delegation will offer volunteer services at a shanty town near the Philippine capital of Manila from Oct. 15 to Oct. 19. In the middle of next month, Liu said, the corps will send another medical delegation to the war-torn African state of Liberia to offer free medical services for refugees there. The corps has twice sent two volunteer groups to work in Liberia in the past few years.

■ Diplomacy
Business council meets
The 19th Taiwan-Sweden Business Council meeting will be held tomorrow in Stockholm. The meeting is aimed at promoting the economic relations and technological exchanges between the two countries, an official of the Taipei Mission in Sweden said. He said Lin Ling-san, minister of transportation and communications of Taiwan, and Lars-Olof Lindgren, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Sweden Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will deliver speeches at the meeting.

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