AID
More donations for Thailand
The government has donated US$1 million to Thailand to help with the country’s flood relief efforts, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said on Tuesday, adding that the government made the decision after hearing a report by Chung Chien (鍾堅), a National Security Council councilor who had visited Taiwanese businesspeople in the kingdom. The donation will be on top of a US$100,000 contribution made last month in the wake of the country’s worst flooding in 50 years. The Thai-Taiwan Business Association and other expatriate groups in Thailand have raised NT$11.2 million that will be donated to help with its relief and rescue efforts. Thailand has also received more than NT$1.62 million from Taiwanese and Thai nationals living in Taiwan, the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei said on Monday.
SOCIETY
Final push for Yushan vote
Yushan National Park Headquarters urged the public to step up voting for Yushan as one of the world’s “New 7 Wonders of Nature” before the contest ends tomorrow. Yushan needs a massive number of votes to avoid elimination, park headquarters officials said. Yushan is among the 28 finalists in the four-stage contest that began three years ago. The mountain — the highest peak in the nation and in East Asia — has been gaining votes slowly, according to the competition Web site. The current top 10 finalists in alphabetical order are the Dead Sea in Israel, the Grand Canyon in the US, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Halong Bay in Vietnam, Jeita Grotto in Lebanon, Jeju Island in South Korea, Indonesia’s Komodo island, the PP Underground River in the Philippines, the Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh and Vesuvius in Italy. Votes for Yushan can be cast at http://n7w.ysnp.gov.tw or www.new7wonders.com. Cellphone users can send a text message to 55123, saying “yushan.”
HEALTH
Free hepatitis checks offered
A hepatitis-screening program will be provided to the public free of charge on Saturday at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation announced yesterday. The program will be held on the anniversary of Republic of China founding father Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) birth in 1866. Sun died of liver disease on March 12, 1925. Sheu Jin-chuan (許金川), a doctor specializing in hepatitis, said public awareness about liver disease needed to be enhanced. “Only one-third of the 3 million hepatitis B carriers in Taiwan, for example, know about their health condition, leaving 2 million at risk of developing more serious complications,” he said, adding that regular screening was necessary to prevent late-stage diagnosis and promote early-stage detection. The program is free for all Taiwanese above the age of 26.
TRAVEL
Luggage hurts CAL plane
The passengers on a China Airlines (CAL) flight, including two Cabinet ministers, were evacuated yesterday after the plane was rammed by a luggage van on the tarmac at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Passengers were boarding the aircraft when the truck ran into it. The pilot ordered passengers to evacuate and the airline deployed another aircraft for the flight to Hawaii. Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德), who were heading for APEC meetings in Hawaii, were among the 275 passengers. The flight eventually departed at 4pm, 90 minutes behind schedule.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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