■ Cross-Strait Ties
Beijing criticizes Chen
China accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday of hoodwinking his people by offering to swap envoys with Beijing and shake hands with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) if he was re-elected. "What he said, I think, aims only to advance his decep-tion of public opinion and fool the people of Taiwan," Taiwan affairs spokesman
Li Weiyi (李維一) told a
news conference in Beijing. Li said that if Chen were serious about building ties, he would recognize that Taiwan was part of China.
"If Chen Shui-bian were
really sincere ... he would create conditions for the resumption of talks and negotiations across the Taiwan Strait," Li said. "Otherwise, he will once again be cheating the
people of Taiwan and inter-national opinion."
■ Government
Cabinet OKs new command
The Cabinet approved a set of draft bills and revisions yesterday to establish a
new airborne rescue com-mand. The Cabinet hopes that the legislature will approve the package by
the end of next year. At present there are five airborne rescue teams belonging to the National Fire Administration, the National Police Administra-tion, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Coast Guard Administration and the army. The new command will be under the Ministry
of the Interior. The com-mand center will be located at Taipei's Sungshan Airport, with secondary bases at Taichung County's Shuinan Airport, Pingtung Airport, Taitung Airport and Hualien Airport. Operations not related to air rescue efforts, such as transporting patients and air-traffic patrol, will be contracted out to the private sector. A preparatory office for the new command will be inaugurated on March 10.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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