The bilateral Singapore-Taipei Star Light Project, under which Taiwan provides training facilities for Singaporean troops, has been temporarily suspended in light of the SARS outbreak, Ker Sin Tze, trade representative of the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei said yesterday.
"This training has come to a temporary suspension because of the SARS outbreak ... This is not the so-called `evacuation,'" Ker said.
Ker made the statement yesterday afternoon after a ceremony at the foreign ministry during which he symbolically passed on to Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
Ker said he was delighted to present these items to Taiwan on behalf of the government and people of Singapore, while adding that he hopes the SARS outbreak would be soon brought under control in Taiwan.
A China Airlines flight carried the 100,000 surgical gowns, 100,000 surgical masks, 100,000 N95 masks and 15 boxes of chemical agents for testing for the SARS virus to Chiang Kai-shek airport, according to Eleanor Kang, assistant trade representative at the Singapore Trade Office.
Another two thermo-scanners, which would be loaned to Taiwan, are slated to reach Taiwan from Singapore today, according to Kang.
Singapore had proposed to send medical experts to Taiwan to help combat the flu-like deadly disease if necessary, although Taiwan has yet to make such a request, Ker told the press.
On behalf of the government and the people of Taiwan, Chien expressed gratitude for the substantive gesture from Singapore.
The ministry in a press release yesterday also expressed its gratitude to South Korea after Seoul announced last week that it would donate some 15,000 surgical masks to Taiwan to help combat the SARS outbreak.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
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The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
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