■ 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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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