TRAVEL
Dengue cases prompt alert
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday issued a travel alert warning travelers against visiting parts of Indonesia’s East Java Province that have been hit by an outbreak of dengue fever. In a statement, the ministry advised Taiwanese to avoid visiting the area in the near future if possible, although urging them to take proper precautions to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes if travel to the area is deemed necessary. The ministry’s warning came after the East Java provincial government declared a state of emergency because of the outbreak, which has affected 1,054 people in the province, 25 of whom have died. The state of emergency is in effect for most of the eastern third of the island of Java. Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease spread by mosquitoes. The symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and skin rash. In a small number of cases, the disease can be fatal.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Seven Taiwanese arrested
Philippine immigration agents have arrested 73 foreign nationals in Makati City, including seven Taiwanese, on suspicion of working without permits, according to Taiwan’s representative office in the Philippines. The Taiwanese are likely to be repatriated, officials at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office said yesterday. Philippine Bureau of Immigration officials arrested the suspected illegal workers during a raid on an online gambling company on Wednesday. The diplomatic office in Manila confirmed that seven Taiwanese were among those who were arrested and that they had arrived in the Philippines within the past couple of months.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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