■ Health
SARS precautions started
To prevent a possible SARS outbreak during the peak flu season, the Department of Health yesterday raised the SARS alarm from a prepara-tive level to an initial zero level, which means that all passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong and Macao must take their tem-peratures for 10 consecutive days. All incoming passen-gers must also fill out a survey form before arriving in the country, the Center for Disease Control said. If any SARS syndromes -- fever, muscle ache, leth-argy, sore throat -- are identified, a person should report to a hospital. The center also reminded all travelers to China, Hong Kong, and Macau to refrain from eating poultry in those places.
■ Transportation
MOTC wants to keep CAL
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) yesterday said he hoped the govern-ment would remain the major shareholder of China Airlines (CAL), the nation's largest carrier. The state-backed China Aviation Development Foundation, which holds about 71 per-cent of the airline's shares, has been trying to sell part of its stake since 1998. The foundation, which Lin chairs, has proposed a two-stage share-release plan and hopes to conclude the sale by the end of next year. For the first time, however, Lin said he though that "there is a need to have state-own airlines." He said the government needs to be CAL's biggest shareholder. While noting that CAL will continue to sell its shares in order to lower the ratio of shares held by the foundation, Lin said that he hopes the ministry could hold onto enough shares to keep control over CAL so that "there will be one com-pany able to implement the government's aviation policy."
■ Society
Computer, Web use rising
About 73 percent of people in this country have at least one computer at home and 53 percent of them are Internet surfers, according to the results of a recent government survey. Some 43 percent of the respon-dents said that they knew of an e-government plan being promoted by the administration, while 57 percent said that they had searched for information on Web sites run by govern-ment agencies, with 53 per-cent of them saying that they did so to purchase train tickets. Around 45 percent used the Web to make hospital appointments, while 42 percent used it to file their taxes. The sur-vey of people over the age of 20 was carried out Oct. 26 by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission. There were 1,094 valid questionnaires and the poll had a margin of error of 3 percent.
■ Cross-strait ties
Lee says talks are best
Academia Sinica chief Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) said yesterday that the most direct way to resolve cross-strait problems would be for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Chinese Presi-dent Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to meet for discussions. Lee made the remark while answering questions during a legislative committee meet-ing about his representing Chen at the APEC summit in Chile on Nov. 20. Lee said he didn't know if he would have an opportunity to contact Hu during the meeting. He said that without careful arrange-ments, it might not be easy to have talks on cross-strait issues, but he hoped that one day there will be an chance for Chen and Hu to talk. Asked if he would be willing to serve as a convener of cross-strait negotiations, Lee said "this is not what I do."
■ Aviation
CAL opens museum
The China Airlines (CAL) Museum was inaugurated in Taipei yesterday, according to an announcement by CAL officials. The purposes of the museum are to mark the company's upcoming 45th anniversary in December and to present its rich flight history. The museum is divided into five display sections, including plane models, plane maintenance facilities, documents about the staff and a device that is supposed to signify that the company will reach a new peak. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) and CAL Chairman Chiang Yao-tsung (江耀宗) jointly cut a ribbon to mark the inauguration of the museum. CAL has a fleet of 62 jets and destinations in 47 cities in 21 countries.
■ Justice
DNA test points to Fung
The Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office yesterday accused former New Party legislator Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) of raping his Filipino maid after a DNA test proved Fung guilty of the sexual offense. In March, Fung, summoned to the prosecutors' office for questioning, denied any misconduct against his maid, who was identified as Rose. Fung told prosecutors at that time Rose had complicated relationships with men and that he was talking to friends over the phone around the time when he allegedly raped her. However, prosecutors said yesterday that the DNA of the semen collected from Rose's underwear matched Fung's. "According to the maid's testimony, Fung sexually assaulted her when his wife and daughter were not at home," prosecutors said. Fung is currently in China and it was not immediately clear whether the government will request the Chinese authorities to repatriate Fung.
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,
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
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
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: