■APEC
Women leaders attend meet
A Taiwanese delegation has arrived in Thailand to attend the APEC forum's 8th Women Leaders' Network Meeting scheduled to open in the northern city of Chiang Mai today. The 12-member delegation is headed by Lin Fang-mei (林芳玫), chairwoman of the National Youth Commission. About 350 delegates representing government, business, academic and non-profit sectors from 20 APEC economic entities are taking part in the meeting dubbed: Women Make a World of Difference: Partnerships for Gender and Development. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Chinnawat is scheduled to address the opening ceremony, which will be followed by split-panel discussions focusing on three sub-themes, featuring knowledge and empowerment, security for women and women entrepreneurship.
■ SARS
Singapore donates gear
Singapore has donated two thermal imaging scanners to help identify SARS sufferers and two ventilators to Taiwan, a government agency said yesterday. Ho Ching (何晶), executive director of Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, presented the machines to Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-San (林陵三) in Taipei, it said in statement. "This latest contribution to Taiwan by the Temasek Group of Companies follows earlier contributions to China -- Beijing and Shanghai -- and Indonesia," Temasek said. "This forms of part of the Temasek Holdings Group's ongoing efforts to forge closer relationships with other Asian economies, and represents the commitment of the Temasek Group of Companies towards enhancing the economic prosperity of the region."
■ Barcelona games
Police win five golds
Taiwanese police officers demonstrated their shooting prowess Tuesday at the 2003 World Police and Fire Games in Barcelona, Spain, National Police Administration (NPA) officials said yesterday.
Chinese Taipei grabbed five more gold medals, all in shooting competitions, on the third day of the biennial games for the world's law enforcement and fire-fighting professionals being held July 27 to Aug 3.
In the men's group rifle competition, police officers Su Chung-suo (蘇崇碩), Lee Tung-hui (李同輝), Tsai Ming-wang (蔡明王) and Liu Chin-yuan (劉晉遠) each won a gold medal by finishing with a combined score of 2,193 points, beating their Spanish counterparts by a narrow 4 points and leaving the defending champion Malaysian team a distant 28 points behind. Meanwhile, officer Lee Tung-hui bagged another gold medal in the men's individual rifle shooting competition, with a total score of 584 points.
■ APEC
APEC holds Incubator Forum
APEC opened its first Incubator Forum in Taipei yesterday, which will be attended by representatives from 21 APEC member economies through Aug. 1. The forum, the first large-scale international conference to be held in Taiwan since the outbreak of SARS in mid-March, serves as a platform for exchanges among APEC members and has elicited a positive response from the participants, who will discuss issues related to strategy, policy and international cooperation centered on the theme of "Business Incubation in the New Century." Taiwan is slated to hold the second APEC Incubator Forum next year.
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
Restaurants in New Taipei City, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to be included in the Michelin Guide’s review for the first time this year, alongside existing entries from Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, the France-based culinary publication said yesterday. This year’s edition of the Michelin Guide Taiwan is to be unveiled on Aug. 19 in Taipei. In addition to the coveted star ratings, Michelin Taiwan would announce its “Bib Gourmand” selections — a distinction awarded to establishments offering high-quality food at moderate prices — on Aug. 12. This year’s Bib Gourmand list would also feature restaurants in New Taipei City, Hsinchu
Rallies supporting recall efforts targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers as well as a rally organized by the KMT opposing the recall campaigns are to take place in Taipei today. Traffic controls were in place on Taipei City Hall Road starting from 10pm last night, and would be in place on Jinan Road Sec 1 from 8am today, police said. Recall campaign groups in Taipei and New Taipei City advocating the recall of KMT legislators, along with the “Safeguard Taiwan Anti-Communist Alliance” have announced plans for motorcycle parades and public rallies in both cities today. Permission has been granted for campaigners to hold
M1A2T ABRAMS TANKS: Thirty-eight of the 108 armored vehicles were delivered in December last year, with the rest to be delivered between later this year and next year The military is to live stream a round of live-fire training sessions on Thursday featuring its newly delivered M1A2T Abrams tanks, allowing the public to witness the training results firsthand, the Ministry of National Defense said. Based on the ministry’s plan, the live-fire training session, scheduled to take place at an army tank training ground in the Kengzihkou (坑子口) area of Hsinchu County, is to feature the US-made armored vehicles firing their 120mm smoothbore guns at moving and stationary targets, while stationary or in motion. At least one senior government official is expected to preside over the round of training sessions, per
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