■ Culture
Corpse show too expensive
An arts promoter said yes-terday he may cancel a controversial art exhibit showing corpses and body parts because the German doctor putting on the show has doubled his fee. "In January he said he would charge us about US$3 million for staging the show for half a year, now he is charging about US$6 million," said Hsu Poh-yun, director of the New Aspects Arts Promo-tion. "That is only for the right to hold the show in Taiwan, not including trans-portation and insurance fees. The burden is too heavy for us," Hsu said. "But I am still interested in bringing the German corpse show to Taiwan because I saw it in January in South Korea and I liked it very much," Hsu said.
■ Penghu
First water shipment arrives
A ship carrying 3,300 tonnes of water arrived in Penghu yesterday to help relieve the serious water shortage on the island. Penghu has not had any rainfall for nearly five months and its reser-voirs are at dangerously low levels. The government is using money from its off-shore construction fund to ship water to the island. Water will be delivered every two days until June 15 next year. Officials estimated that with maintenance of the wharfs and other facilities and personnel expenses, the total expenditure may come to NT$110.8 million, or about NT$160 per tonne of water.
■ Utilities
Old pipes to be replaced
Taiwan Water Works will budget NT$5 billion (US$147 million) each year for installing new water pipes in urban areas around the country to replace the old ones and prevent water leakage, a company official said yesterday. Yang Ching-ho (楊清和), manager of the water supply department, said the project will begin next year. He said that approximately 25 percent of the water supplied by the company in urban areas is lost to leakage from old pipes.
■ Health
SARS hotline to reopen
A hotline set up to provide counseling to the public on fighting SARS during the peak of the outbreaks earlier this year will be reopened Saturday as part of efforts to brace for a possible resur-facing of the disease, a health official said yesterday. Chou Chih-hao (周志浩), deputy director of the Center for Disease Control, traveled to Ilan County yesterday to drum up public vigilance against SARS. Chou said health authorities are better-prepared to combat the disease, should it break out again.
■ Health
Push to join aid agency
The Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan yesterday announced plans to lobby for a local branch of the international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres. Foundation president Wu Shu-min (吳樹民) said that as part of efforts to join the World Health Organization, it was important that medical aid organizations cooperate to increase the nation's impact and visibility.
■ Education
Scholarships offered
Thai youths of Chinese or Taiwanese descent are welcomed to take advantage of the many scholarships offered by the Ministry of Education, said Kao Tsung-yun (高崇雲), chairman of the ministry's Committee on Overseas Chinese Education yesterday in Bangkok. The ministry has allocated NT$145 million (US$4.28 million) in scholarships this year for overseas Chinese students, Kao said.
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
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
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