The Presidential Office yesterday said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had apologized for the inconvenience he caused during a recent visit to a typhoon-struck area by helicopter, and would donate NT$100,000 to fund the repairs. The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported on Friday that when Ma and his guards recently visited Kaohsiung [...]

Amid a slow process and the fact that locally produced vaccines for swine flu cannot be administered to people under one year of age, the government intends to purchase more swine flu vaccines from a foreign manufacturer and to distribute more Tamiflu to local hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. “If this [...]

Less than 10 percent of people are fully aware of how swine flu spreads, a survey released by Common Health magazine showed on Friday. The telephone survey, conducted between July 9 and July 11, found that 6.84 percent of respondents correctly identified the two means by which the swine flu virus can be transmitted: Through [...]

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday he would look into the responsibility of the builder of the MRT Muzha-Neihu Line system after the line was shut down for more than 20 minutes on Friday night because of human error. Service was interrupted at 9:25pm on Friday after a sudden power outage at the MRT’s [...]

Taipei, Aug. 28 (CNA) The Central Weather Bureau announced Friday that a total of NT$1.9 billion (US$59 million) will be invested over the next six years to strengthen forecasting technologies, enabling meteorologists to provide rainfall projections two to three hours before torrential rains arrive. Many criticized the bureau for inaccurate rainfall predictions prior to the [...]

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) A project to reconstruct a Taipei City building that was toppled in the 921 earthquake was completed Saturday, weeks ahead of the 10th anniversary of the disaster. Former residents of the Tunghsing Building gathered in the lobby of the reconstructed complex for a cocktail party Saturday, in anticipation of their return [...]

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) The government will evaluate the demand among Typhoon Morakot victims for temporary pre-fabricated houses before erecting such structures, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said Saturday. Liu made the remarks during a visit to a military barracks in Kaohsiung County where some of the victims are being sheltered. He was responding to reports that [...]

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin prayed at a temple in the Shongshan district Friday for the success of the Deaflympics, which the city will host Sept. 5-15, promising the deities that he would eat only vegetarian food for two weeks. The plea was an indication of the pressure that the mayor [...]

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) Although the number of crime victims in Taiwan appears to be dropping, an increasing number of people are not satisfied with the government’s performance in maintaining social order, according to the results of a survey released Saturday. The survey, conducted by the Crime Research Center of National Chung Cheng University in [...]

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has given a positive evaluation of Taiwan’s response operations in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, after OCHA sent a mission to Taiwan to assess the country’s humanitarian needs. The OCHA disaster assessment and coordination mission, which was in Taiwan from Monday to Friday, reported that [...]