■ ENVIRONMENT
Heavy dust on the way
People with cardiopulmonary or respiratory diseases should stay indoors and avoid strenuous activities today and tomorrow because Taiwan will be enveloped by heavy dust from Inner Mongolia in China, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday. “A cold front passed through the northern part of the island today [Saturday], bringing with it air pollutants from Inner Mongolia and central China. The front will move southward today, bringing cold weather and dust to southern Taiwan,” the Department of Environmental Monitoring and Information Management said. Rain may reduce the air pollutants in some parts of the country, the department said. The EPA urges the public to avoid spending unnecessary time outdoors, particularly in the case of children, the elderly and those with heart or respiratory problems.
■ CULTURE
Museum crowds growing
The National Palace Museum is considering measures to manage crowds, as the influx of Chinese tourists has put a strain on service to visitors, a senior curator said yesterday. The museum is a favorite destination for Chinese visitors, resulting in overcrowding in the most popular display rooms and galleries since the number of Chinese tourists rose significantly last month, museum deputy director Feng Ming-chu (馮明珠) said. In the past, Feng said, the number of visitors per day exceeded 8,000 only on holidays. “But nowadays the number tends to surpass the 8,000 mark every day,” she said. Feng said the number of Chinese visitors was expected to increase following the launch of regularly scheduled flights across the Taiwan Strait, leading the museum to seek measures to deal with bigger crowds.
■ SOCIETY
Falun Gong stage protest
About 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered at Liberty Square yesterday, demanding that Beijing stop its persecution of their group. Activists were there to mark the 10th anniversary of a 10,000-strong silent protest by Falun Gong followers in Beijing. The Beijing rally sparked a crackdown on the group. Chang Ching-hsi (張清溪), an economics professor at National Taiwan University and a Falun Gong practitioner, said that despite the crackdown, “Falun Gong has not collapsed. Instead, it has spread to more than 100 countries.” He estimated that there were 500,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan. The rally at Liberty Square drew some curious Chinese tourists, who hurriedly posed for photos before being led off by tour guides.
■ POLITICS
Lu urges Chen to keep out
Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday it would be “inappropriate” and “unnecessary” for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to rejoin the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at the moment. Lu made the remarks in response to media reports that Chen told Hsu Chieh-yuan (??, an executive committee member of the DPP Taipei City Branch, during a visit on Thursday that he would be willing to rejoin the party if it invited him. Chen, who is being held at the Taipei Detention Center, is being tried on counts of embezzlement, money laundering, taking bribes and forgery. Lu said Chen’s top priority should be to remain healthy and prove his innocence, adding that during a recent visit, he had not mentioned rejoining the party. Chen withdrew from the party in August.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
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