■ TB rate causes concern
A medical researcher noted yesterday that the number of people dying from tuberculosis in Taiwan is 20 times the figure in the US, which he said proved that the quality of the nation's medical services needed to be improved. Wen Chi-pang (溫啟邦), a fellow at the Health Policy Research Division of the National Health Research Institute, made the remarks in his thesis presented at a conference promoting improvements to medical services. Wen said the number of people dying from tuberculosis had decreased in the last 10 years thanks to improvements in medical technology. Taipei City registered the lowest rate in 2002, with Taitung County registering the highest rate, at five times Taipei's level. The rate in mountainous areas was 126 times higher than the US rate.
■ Crime
Hotline for kidnap hoaxes
The education ministry has decided to set up emergency hotlines for parents to report attempts of extortion through hoax kidnappings of students, a radio station reported yesterday. The education ministry issued the order because criminals were making phone calls to students' parents, claiming they had kidnapped their children and would kill them unless the parents paid them off, the Broadcasting Corporation of China said. Some parents had taken the threats seriously and followed the instructions, sending money to the criminals' bank accounts, only to find out later that their children were safe in school. Some schools had established hotlines even before the ministry's order, the report said.
■ Crime
Campaign targets fraud
Heads of law enforcement and prosecuting agencies will meet tomorrow to figure out more effective ways to fight rampant fraud. The meeting was decided upon following an announcement by Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) on Friday that he was declaring an all-out war against gangs conspiring to defraud the community. Top officials from different government departments, including incoming National Police Administration Director-General Hsieh Yin-tang (謝銀黨), will attend the meeting. Increasing numbers of people, including the minister himself, have fallen victim to crimes of fraud, including credit-card fraud and elaborate ATM card scams.
■ Diplomacy
Officials meet EBRD head
A delegation headed by Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂), Taiwan's representative to London, met with Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), yesterday to discuss ways of promoting bilateral cooperation. The Taiwan delegation, consisting of financial officials and diplomats, will also attend the 13th annual meeting of the EBRD in London today and tomorrow, including its Board of Governors' meeting, business forum and donors' meeting. Tien said before the meeting that Taiwan shared the EBRD's aim of promoting democracy and the market economy, and that he looked forward to closer cooperation with the EBRD. Founded in 1991 following the collapse of communism in eastern and central Europe, the EBRD has promoted investment as a means of developing market economies and democracies in 27 countries from central Europe to central Asia. Taiwanese officials opened an office with the EBRD in February.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS