Taipei City Government yesterday announced details of security measures and a traffic control plan that will be implemented for the presidential inauguration, saying that the central government will be in charge if any unusual situations arise -- but that the city government will be in charge of areas outside those covered by the traffic control plan.
Wu Yu-sheng (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Wu announced that traffic controls near the Presidential Office will go into effect at 10pm on Wednesday and will be in place until 1pm on Thursday.
Detours will affect at least 50 bus lines. Under certain circumstances, MRT trains might not make stops at Taipei Main Station, National Taiwan University Hospital Station and Hsiao Nanmen Station.
The central government has decided not to set up barricades around the Presidential Office.
At 12 entrances around the traffic control area, officials will check people's identification and will only allow people with invitations to enter the site, Wu said.
Ma will direct the city's Bureau of Police and monitor security on Thursday, Wu said.
Chien Chih-tsai (簡枝財), deputy of the Bureau of Police, said that it is estimated that about 105,000 people will attend the inauguration.
Chien also said that the National Police Administration will assign 8,500 police officers to the event, partly to prevent gangsters from making trouble.
Chien said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has asked that protection for KMT workers be provided because the KMT's headquarters is close to the Presidential Office.
The Bureau of Police will deploy enough police officers outside the KMT headquarters to ensure security, Chien said.
Chien also said that no protests will be allowed in front of the KMT headquarters because the headquarters is inside the control area.
Wu stressed that the central government will be in charge of security inside the traffic control area and that the city government will coordinate its efforts with the central government.
"If people without permits attempt to enter the control area, the first thing that will happen is that the city government will attempt to persuade them not to cause any trouble," Wu said.
"However, ultimately, the central government is in command." Wu said.
Cheng Tung-ying (
However, schools are encouraged to adjust their schedules if necessary and exercise discretion in punishing students who are late for class.
The Presidential Office also held a news conference reporting on security measures for the inauguration and on a drill simulating scenarios that could arise on Thursday.
Shieh Ing-dan (
Sheng also said that the police will do their best to safeguard the security of every guest and participant at the inauguration.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching