■ Society
Leaders bid farewell to Sun
The funeral of former premier Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿) yesterday saw the attendance of most of the country's political leaders, including President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), as well as the heads of opposition parties. Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) officiated at the memorial ceremony, which was held at the Chieshou chapel at Veterans General Hospital in Taipei. Three former premiers -- Lee Huan (李煥), Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) and Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) draped the national flag on Sun's coffin. Sun, known as the major architect of Taiwan's economic and industrial development in the 1980s, died on Feb. 15 at the age of 93. He served as premier from 1978 to 1984. KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), along with his two deputies Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Helen Lin (林澄枝), also draped the KMT party flag over Sun's coffin during the ceremony. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and his deputy Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) attended the ceremony.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
■ Health
Chickens to be cooped up
County and city governments nationwide are expected to promulgate a set of new rules aimed at preventing bird flu by March 15, which include requiring poultry farmers to raise chickens indoors between September and April, Council of Agriculture officials said yesterday. The officials said that the September-April period is the season when migratory birds are on the move and that keeping chickens outside will increase the chances of poultry coming into contact with the wild birds -- potential carriers of the bird flu virus.
■ Agriculture
Shots for hogs to stop
The Council of Agriculture (COA) said it will stop vaccinating hogs on the outlying island of Penghu against foot-and-mouth disease on a trial basis from March 1. If all goes well, shots for hogs on Taiwan proper will be stopped from June, COA officials said. If no fresh cases of the disease are reported after one year of stopping vaccinations, Taiwan will apply to the France-based animal health organization Office Internationale Des Epizooties (OIE) to reinstate Taiwan as a foot-and-mouth disease free country. A major epidemic in March 1997 prompted the government to order a mass slaughter of livestock. In 1999, cattle on the outlying island of Kinmen were found to be infected. No new cases have been reported since February 2001.
■ Charity
Tzu Chi helps Leyte victims
A group of volunteers from the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation arrived yesterday in a disaster-hit area in the south of the Philippine island of Leyte with sufficient relief supplements for the needs of some 500 people, according to the Tzu Chi branch in the Philippine city of Cebu. Rescue efforts restarted on Friday after heavy rain interrupted the work that began after a devastating landslide buried the village of Guinsaugon. So far, Philippine soldiers and rescue personnel from other countries, including the US, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan, have dug out 130 bodies, but there are still over 900 people missing, all of whom are feared dead, the group said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
President William Lai (賴清德) today condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Essen, Germany, yesterday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with media employees. “Why are you taking our things?” the media employees asked. “Does that say Chinese Taipei?” the two Chinese reportedly said. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on
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