■TRAVEL
MOFA updates ‘yellow’ alert
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday added Sweden, Guatemala and Poland to the “yellow” travel alert category after they recently reported confirmed cases of H1N1, bringing to 26 the number of countries and areas that Taiwan has tagged with a yellow advisory since the global outbreak of swine flu. A yellow alert serves as a reminder for travelers to exercise caution, an orange travel alert advises travelers to postpone their trips and a red alert warns travelers not to enter the area in question under any circumstances. At present, Mexico is the only country for which MOFA has issued a red travel alert.
■SOCIETY
Mothers’ feet to be washed
An ethics group plans to mark Mother’s Day by inviting 1,000 children and students to wash their mothers’ feet, the group said yesterday. The event will be held on Sunday at the Ilan Sports Park by the Alliance of Filial Piety for Parents and Respect for Teachers. On that day, 1,000 mothers will sit in rows, each with a basin of warm water in front of them, so their children can wash their feet. “This event is to let children show filial piety for mothers. The physical contact can help improve child-parent relationships and enable children to care for their mothers, because their mothers cared for them when they were small,” the alliance said in a news release. This will be the second year the event will take place on Mother’s Day in Ilan. Last year, the alliance gathered 660 children and students to wash their mothers’ feet.
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Neihu Line almost open
The first pre-operation inspection of the Taipei MRT’s Neihu Line is expected to be completed by the end of this week in preparation for the scheduled inauguration of the line late next month, the city’s metro authority said yesterday. After the system passes the first inspection, a second examination by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will be required, the Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) said. The 14.8km Neihu Line, which is an extension of the 10.5km Muzha Line, will run along 12 stops from Songshan Airport Station to Taipei Nangang Exhibition Station. Initially, the service will run every 145 seconds during rush hours and every five minutes during off-peak periods, DORTS said. Later, the frequency of the service will be gradually increased to every 90 seconds during rush hours and every three minutes during off-peak periods.
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Kaohsiung to hold rail bid
The Kaohsiung City Government is calling for another round of bidding to start on Monday for the construction of a light rail system to complement its mass rapid transit (MRT) system, a city official announced yesterday. The tender period was originally supposed to end this month. Sources familiar with the project said that the city’s MRT bureau, which is in charge of the project, decided to extend the tender period until July 11 because it has yet to find a private investor interested in the project because of the high cost and low potential return. The government’s plan calls for the system to be built by private investors on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis with a budget of NT$12.2 billion (US$370 million) — NT$2.5 billion of which will come from the city government, NT$4.4 billion from the central government, and the remaining NT$5.295 billion from private investors, the city official said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry