■ Crime
New hotline opens
The National Police Administration (NPA) introduced an"anti-fraud calls hotline service" yesterday and encouraged the public to use the service whenever they receive phone calls from people who threaten them and try to extort money. The hotline service is based inside the agency's headquarters and has eight police officers to take calls from around the country. The hotline began service immediately after NPA Director-General Shieh Ing-dan (謝銀黨) announced its launch yesterday afternoon. The hotline's number is 0800-018-110.
■ Transportation
MRT clean of Legionnaire's
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday that there was no sign of the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease, a highly contagious lung infection, in the cooling towers of MRT stations. Taipei City Councilor Pan Huai-chung (潘懷宗), a New Party member, yesterday said the TRTC had ignored the spread of the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's in the cooling towers of MRT stations, thereby exposing people to a highly dangerous environment. TRTC president Tsay Huei-sheng (蔡輝昇) said tests for the disease at 18 MRT stations turned up negative and the company has submitted its assay methods and results to the Center for Disease Control to see whether the TRTC's management meets the center's regulations. Chiu Chan-hsien (邱展賢), a division chief at Taipei City's Department of Health, said there's no need for the public to worry about the disease.
■ Tourism
SARS hurts trips to China
The reappearance of SARS in China has poured cold water on Taiwan's tourism industry. Tour operators are holding their breath to see if the situation worsens, according to an industry source. Since three suspected SARS cases were reported in Beijing and Anhui Province, nearly 30 percent of China-bound Taiwanese tourists have canceled their trips and the ratio is likely to increase to above 50 percent should the situation in China and Taiwan change noticeably, the source said yesterday. The impact on China-bound travel, however, is unlikely to be as bad as it was last year, except for trips to Beijing. If China's SARS situation gets worse, local tour agencies may first consider calling a halt to trips to Beijing, according to the source. The spread of SARS would also affect inbound travel to Taiwan, he said. Many tourism-related businesses have not yet fully recovered from last year's SARS epidemic, he said, as a result of a large drop in inbound travelers, especially those from Japan.
■ Society
Few trust politicians
Taiwan's election dispute has shattered peoples' trust in the government so much that they trust fortune-tellers and shamans more than they trust the president and the judiciary, an opinion poll showed yesterday. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) won re-election by beating opposition leader Lien Chan (連戰) by 29,000 votes, a margin of 0.02 percentage points. The poll showed that 34 percent of a total of 579 company executives polled believe the election dispute can be solved through legal proceedings, while 52 percent don't believe so. It also showed 19 percent trust fortune-tellers, 18 percent trust lawyers and 14 percent trust the president. The poll also indicated that only a scant of 2.76 percent of the interviewees trust lawmakers, while 7.43 percent trust shamans.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
As Taiwan celebrated its baseball team’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 on Sunday, how politicians referred to the team in their congratulatory messages reflected the nation’s political divide. Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北隊), made history with its first-ever Premier12 championship after beating Japan 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome. Right after the game, President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated the team via a post on his Facebook page. Besides the players, Lai also lauded the team’s coaching and medical staff, and the fans cheering for them in Tokyo or watching the live broadcast, saying that “every
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