■ Transportation
MRT tries out voice system
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) began a six-month trial run of a voice-guided system at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall MRT station to better assist visually impaired commuters. If the test is successful, a more complete system will be installed in all MRT stations, according to the company. The new voice-guided system includes a broadcast speaker, an infrared ray sensor, a Braille board and a service bell speaker. The infrared ray sensor will broadcast the message, "visually impaired passengers who need help please stay on the right side, and press the service bell to talk to our staff members," when it senses approaching passengers. The company urged visually impaired or disabled passengers not to hesitate to ask for help at MRT stations if needed.
■ Society
Offensive map removed
A publisher has withdrawn tourist maps from CKS International Airport showing a pop singer with a profanity on her T-shirt, the company said yesterday. The free map of Taipei shows singer Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄) wearing a pink sleeveless T-shirt with the words "dirty white slut" printed on it in gothic letters, a pink cap and hot pants. The words seemed to refer to promiscuity. The map's publisher, the Vision Group, said there had been no complaints about the slogan, but it had still decided to remove the maps from the airport. "The person responsible for issuing the map didn't understand English, but when we saw the picture, we thought it better to withdraw it from circulation," a company spokeswoman said. The map is still available at some hotels in Taipei, though. "We have no right to interfere with the hotels, they make their own decision about the map," she said.
■ Politics
CCP officials `chat' with Li
Writer and independent legislator Li Ao (李敖) yesterday told the press that Chinese authorities had "visited him for a chat" after his first speech in China on Wednesday during which he championed freedom of speech and took repeated swipes at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In his speech to an audience of about 500 people at Peking University on Wednesday, Li advised the 69 million members of the CCP to relax and stop "wearing a poker-face." Li told the press yesterday that his second speech to an audience at Tsinghua University today will go ahead as scheduled, as will the pungency of the content of his speech.
■ Health
Flu-shot campaign starts
Free inoculations for selected people will begin this week, drawing on the 2.15 million doses of influenza vaccine purchased earlier this year, the Department of Health said yesterday. Health officials said that the medicine is similar to last year's, and that they hoped to see a higher inoculation rate than the 60 percent achieved last year. The free shots are offered to medical personnel, children, rare-disease patients as well as workers in the poultry or livestock industries. Officials from the health department's Center for Disease Control reminded those involved in raising, slaughtering or shipping poultry and livestock to receive inoculations. The inoculation rate last year for this industry was the lowest in the country at 59.9 percent, while those in the medical care and quarantine industries had the highest rate at 88 percent. Hospitals and clinics will provide shots to the general public for between NT$400 and NT$500 each.
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
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
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
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