■ 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.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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