■ Politics
Chen aide rebuts charges
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has never received political donations from the KMT, James Huang (黃志芳), director of the Public Affairs Department of the Presiden-tial Office said Wednesday. Huang made the statement following remarks by PFP Legislator Chiou Yi (邱毅) that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) contributed NT$600 million (US$17.3 million) to Chen's 2000 presidential campaign. Chiou said the money may have come from the KMT and was transmitted to Chen via Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), former chairman of the KMT's Business Management Committee. Huang denied the accusation, stressing that Chen never obtained any political donations from the KMT, Lee or Liu. Huang called Chiou's remarks irresponsible and said they had seriously damaged Chen's reputation.
■ Health
Insurance sponsors sought
World Vision Taiwan and the Bureau of National Health Insurance have initiated a fund-raising program to help some 30,000 children who are not covered by the National Health Insurance plan, a World Vision spokes-man said yesterday. He said that while 96 percent of the population is covered by the program, there are still some 300,000 people who are left out because they are unable to pay the premiums. For a monthly donation of NT$650, a person can participate in the sponsorship program, the spokesman said.
■ Education
Students score in math test
A number of secondary school students participating in the American Mathe-matics Competition (AMC) held by the American Mathematics Association in February had scored full marks, counting for 74 percent of the total full scores around the world, the Secondary Education Association (TSEA) reported yesterday. The TSEA said 23 students had full marks out of the total 31 full-score contestants in the AMC10 category taken by high school freshmen although three of the 23 are junior high school students. A total of 5,289 students in Taiwan reached the scores of excellence -- half of all the contestants from around the world. In the AMC12 test category for high school sophomores and juniors, 1,503 students out of the total 4,804 contestants reached the level of excel-lence. These students will be be able to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination on April 13.
■ Diplomacy
Rice for Iraq being loaded
The government is ready to ship 5,000 tonnes of rice in 100,000 packages for Iraqi civilians as the first batch of its humanitarian aid for that country, officials said yester-day. The rice, donated by various government and private suppliers, is being loaded at the Taichung Harbor. Loading is expected to be completed by Monday. The rice will be shipped to Jordan, where it will be delivered to Iraq with the help of inter-national humanitarian groups, they said. Each 50kg package bears the ROC flag, the officials said.
■ Reconstruction
921 work proceeding
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that 921 recon-struction work is going smoothly, and should be completed by June next year. He made remarks while presiding over a meeting of 921 Earthquake Post Disas-ter Recovery Commission in Chung Hsing New Village in central Taiwan. Yu said the rebuilding of houses has proven to be the most difficult task.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said the city “does not tolerate violence” after the Taipei City Council reported death threats over a planned screening today of a documentary on alleged forced organ harvesting in China. The council’s report follows a flurry of similar threats targeting theaters and institutions screening the documentary, titled State Organs, which accuses Chinese officials of harvesting organs from incarcerated dissidents and Falun Gong members. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors who planned to screen the film told a news conference earlier yesterday that the organizers of the screening had received a threat of a knife attack signed
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