Technicians have confirmed that dozens of wireless signals have originated from the wreck-age of the World Trade Center since Tuesday's attack as they deploy technologies in hopes of finding survivors, officials said on Saturday.
"We do have 50-plus open cases where we have had signals detected at ground zero since the attack," said Kark Rauscher, who is heading up a coalition of wireless companies helping look for survivors.
In one case, two people apparently trapped together in the wreckage have placed separate calls, possibly with separate phones, although they have not been heard from for at least the past day, he said.
The ad-hoc "wireless emergency response team," composed of technicians from some of the major telecommunications companies, has begun searching for activity on about 2,000 wireless phone numbers of people believed trapped in the wreckage.
Although an active signal from a wireless device would not indicate that its owner has survived the attack, it could help rescue crews focus on air pockets and basement areas of the rubble where people may be huddled awaiting rescue, a Federal Emergency Management Administration spokesman said.
As wreckage is cleared away, the team hopes its "radio frequency sniffers" will be able to pick up signals blocked by the tons of concrete and steel.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)