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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ POLITICS

First lady leaves hospital

First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) left the hospital yesterday after spending two days in treatment for cold symptoms, the Presidential Office confirmed yesterday. Wu was hospitalized at 6:10pm on Saturday after a cold developed into a minor lung inflammation. At the time of her admission, Wu had been running a high fever for four days. At its peak, Wu's temperature reached 39.2oC, but after treatment it came down to about 38oC, according to Wu's medical team. The wheelchair-bound Wu was paralyzed from the waist down after she was hit by a van in 1984.



■ MEDICINE

DOH donates equipment

More than 19 countries have received donated medical equipment from the Department of Health's Global Medical Instrument Support and Service program, the department said in a release yesterday. The program collects donations of used medical equipment -- including incubators for newborns, X-ray machines and even ambulances -- from hospitals and medical centers to send to countries friendly to Taiwan that are in need of the equipment. The price of the equipment that been donated since the program began in 2005 would come to more than NT$50 million (US$1.6 million) if it were purchased new, the release said. Countries that have benefitted from the program include Mongolia, Haiti, the Honduras, Nicaragua and Nigeria.



■ EDUCATION

Tu touts `piggybank'

People can help less advantaged students by donating money to a special account set up by the Ministry of Education and individual schools, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) said yesterday. Tu urged the public to do all they could to ensure all school-aged children in the country receive an adequate education. So far, 214 schools have participated in the program and the MOE has also set aside NT$200 million (US$6.1 million) to help the schools start accumulating money. Two private foundations have donated NT$1 million each, Tu said. He said the idea of the nation-wide piggybank project is to allow each school to have their own account into which the public can donate money for financially disadvantaged students. All transactions will be transparent, he said. For more information, visit www.edusave.edu.tw.



■ MILITARY

Mortar kills soldier

A private died and a lieutenant was injured in an explosion at a Logistics Command Headquarters base in Taichung County yesterday. "Private Wang Chao-hsin (王照鑫) died at the scene. Lieutenant Lin Chien-hung's (林建宏) ears and eyes were injured but his condition is stable," read a news release from the command's headquarters. The release said that Wang and Lin were trying to defuse a mortar at around 10:35am yesterday when the mortar was accidentally triggered and exploded. Military prosecutors were investigating the accident, it said. The Ministry of National Defense did not make any comment on the incident as of press time yesterday, but Logistics Command Headquarters' Commander General Chin Nai-chieh (金乃傑) and spokesman Major General Wong Cheng-yin (翁承蔭) immediately notified the families of the soldiers and asked the base to temporarily stop defusing mortars until the investigation into the incident is complete, the release said.
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