■ Health
China travel alert issued
The Department of Health yesterday called for tourists traveling to China not to touch birds in order to avoid being infected with a bird flu. The warning came after Hong Kong confirmed a nine-year-old boy contracted the disease. The strain of the virus is similar to that which caused the bird-flu epidemic in Hong Kong in 1997. Center for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chen Tsai-ching (陳再晉) noted yes-terday that there is no vaccine against bird flu. "The Council of Agriculture has not discovered any virus on the birds that can travel to humans," he said, noting that bird flu has never appeared in Taiwan. Nevertheless, Chen said the CDC may not be able to control the disease if an epidemic did occur locally. Chen also expressed concern that poultry smuggled in from China
may carry bird-flu virus.
■ Mass transit
Taipei officials go to Daegu
A group of Taipei City Government officials will go to Daegu, South Korea, to study events surrounding an arson attack on a subway train on Tuesday that has left at least 125 dead, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday. The Taipei City Government held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to strengthen the safety of the city's mass rapid transit system, which transports around 1 million commuters daily. Although Taipei subway authorities said they were confident that their system is safe, participants at the meeting decided to organize a trip to Daegu to gain insight into how the tragedy happened and how a similar situation could be avoided or contained in Taipei. The delegation will leave today.
■ Drought
Nankan faces tougher steps
Nankan, the main island of the Matsu island group, might have to begin a second-phase of water rationing in the near future should its drought continue. Water levels in Nankan's reservoirs remain low despite recent slight precipitation. Water depart-ment statistics show the seven reservoirs and dams contain a total of 102,975 tonnes of water, 96,975 tonnes of which can be used to provide water for 39 days. The department said a second-phase of water restrictions might be put in place, giving residents one waterless day out of every five, if the water volume drops to less than 800,000 tonnes. The first phase of rationing, which stops water supplies every day after 9pm, has been in place since Feb. 6. The department warned resi-dents not to waste water before the annual rainy season arrives.
■ Crime
Motorcycle thefts targeted
The Ministry of the Interior plans to promote the identification-system for motorcycles by numbering motorcycle components in a bid to reduce bike thefts. The ministry yesterday invited criminal experts and academics to discuss how to decrease the rate of motorcycle theft, as part of Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien's (余政憲) aim to decrease the nation's crime rate over the next three months. Yu yesterday said that he believes an identification system would cut down on thefts. According to the Criminal Investigation Bureau, 191,280 motorcycles were stolen last year, a slight reduction from the 193,271 stolen in 2001. To implement the policy, Vice Minister Chein Tai-lang (簡太郎) will coordinate with the Ministry of Transportation and Communication in the coming weeks.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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