■TRAVEL
MOFA updates ‘yellow’ alert
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday added Sweden, Guatemala and Poland to the “yellow” travel alert category after they recently reported confirmed cases of H1N1, bringing to 26 the number of countries and areas that Taiwan has tagged with a yellow advisory since the global outbreak of swine flu. A yellow alert serves as a reminder for travelers to exercise caution, an orange travel alert advises travelers to postpone their trips and a red alert warns travelers not to enter the area in question under any circumstances. At present, Mexico is the only country for which MOFA has issued a red travel alert.
■SOCIETY
Mothers’ feet to be washed
An ethics group plans to mark Mother’s Day by inviting 1,000 children and students to wash their mothers’ feet, the group said yesterday. The event will be held on Sunday at the Ilan Sports Park by the Alliance of Filial Piety for Parents and Respect for Teachers. On that day, 1,000 mothers will sit in rows, each with a basin of warm water in front of them, so their children can wash their feet. “This event is to let children show filial piety for mothers. The physical contact can help improve child-parent relationships and enable children to care for their mothers, because their mothers cared for them when they were small,” the alliance said in a news release. This will be the second year the event will take place on Mother’s Day in Ilan. Last year, the alliance gathered 660 children and students to wash their mothers’ feet.
■SOCIETY
Neihu Line almost open
The first pre-operation inspection of the Taipei MRT’s Neihu Line is expected to be completed by the end of this week in preparation for the scheduled inauguration of the line late next month, the city’s metro authority said yesterday. After the system passes the first inspection, a second examination by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will be required, the Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) said. The 14.8km Neihu Line, which is an extension of the 10.5km Muzha Line, will run along 12 stops from Songshan Airport Station to Taipei Nangang Exhibition Station. Initially, the service will run every 145 seconds during rush hours and every five minutes during off-peak periods, DORTS said. Later, the frequency of the service will be gradually increased to every 90 seconds during rush hours and every three minutes during off-peak periods.
■SOCIETY
Kaohsiung to hold rail bid
The Kaohsiung City Government is calling for another round of bidding to start on Monday for the construction of a light rail system to complement its mass rapid transit (MRT) system, a city official announced yesterday. The tender period was originally supposed to end this month. Sources familiar with the project said that the city’s MRT bureau, which is in charge of the project, decided to extend the tender period until July 11 because it has yet to find a private investor interested in the project because of the high cost and low potential return. The government’s plan calls for the system to be built by private investors on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis with a budget of NT$12.2 billion (US$370 million) — NT$2.5 billion of which will come from the city government, NT$4.4 billion from the central government, and the remaining NT$5.295 billion from private investors, the city official said.
RSS