HEALTH
Organ donors rising: poll
An increasing number of people in Taiwan are willing to donate their organs after death, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center showed. The poll said 69 percent of respondents have decided to be organ donors, an increase of 2 percent from three years ago. Of these respondents, more than 12 percent have signed a consent form for organ donation, which is equivalent to 320,000 people, up 43 percent from three years ago. The survey also found that younger people tend to identify more with the concept of organ donation, probably because they have more access to life education and information about organ donation, center deputy CEO Liu Chia-chi (劉嘉琪) said. The poll surveyed 5,022 people aged between 16 and 65 by telephone in May, and had a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.
TRAVEL
Kaohsiung launches tour bus
A double-decker tour bus is to hit the road in Kaohsiung tomorrow, with one tour guide on board, as well as a portable audio tour guide service in English, Japanese and Korean, city officials said. The bus is to operate on a four-month trial basis on a 11km north-south route that will start and end at the square in front of Kaohsiung Dream Mall, the city government said. Traveling at 40kph, it will take passengers on a tour of attractions around the city, making no stops along the way, it added. As the back half of the upper level is open, the bus will carry 40 raincoats that passengers can use if necessary, it said. A one-day ticket for the 40-minute bus tour will cost NT$300 (US$9.52). The city government said it had ordered two double-decker tour buses for the new service, at a cost of NT$15 million each. The second bus is expected to be delivered in November, it said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
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