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Michael Jackson drugged to death

Michael Jackson has passed away on Thursday June 25th due to respiratory and cardiac arrest. In anticipation of the tour planed for Michael Jackson which was expected to bring him 400Million US$ in profit, the stakes were high. Michael Jackson had suffered injuries during stage performances and therefore was put on high medications. Maybe a little to high. Because contracts for his tour were already signed and tickets had been sold already also, his management had pushed the envelope too far. Michael Jackson most likely died of an overdose of prescription drugs. Michael Jackson was taking seven different drugs including Xanax, Zoloft and Demerol. Jackson's family lawyer had warned Michael Jackson and told him that he was worried about his prescriptions.
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Congressional Martial Law Declared

Don't be confused with the term martial law, (marshal law) and Congressional Martial Law. The American congress declared Congressional Martial Law last night in order to speed things up in terms of passing bailouts etc. Under this rule, members of the house won't have much time reviewing details of the legislation before they vote on it. For more information on this follow the link provided below.
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Wikimania 2007 in Taipei

Wikimania 2007, the third annual international Wikimedia conference, will be held August 3rd -5th in Taipei, Taiwan at Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center (CTOYAC). It is a scientific and community event to bring members of different Wikimedia projects together so they can exchange their ideas. It is an opportunity for the general public as well as for Wikimedians to share their ideas about open source software, free knowledge initiatives and Wikimedia projects worldwide. Overseas attendees can register at Wekimedia's website and apply for cheap accommodation provided by the organizers. For more information and/or registration visit Wikimedia's website. Just follow the link provided below!
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Google search engine technology introduces new function

The way we search pictures on the Internet might change in a very fundamental way. Till now major search engines determent the content of the pictures displayed in their search result basically by the text, alt tags and other readable cues surrounding the picture. A new recognition technology allows google to scan the picture itself and run an algorithm similar to face recognition in order to know its content. Google has not introduced this technology officially, yet. Many blogs dealing with this topic suggest that it is connected with google's buy of ��Neven Vision�� last year. Neven Vision is a software company specializing in Face recognition technology. To get a little taste of what's coming in the future, search google picture for any city and add ��&imgtype=face�� without quotation marks at the end of the search results url. We did this for Taipei! Just follow the link provided below.
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Computex Taipei 2007 starts on June 5th and will end on the 9th.

Taipei computer show is one of the leading events in the city. The show is interesting for business and private visitors since there are always a lot of promotional sales. Interesting for our readers will probably be the software section, printer and print cartridges, laminating films, and other products you might want to use for your teaching profession. For a more detailed overview visit the Taipei computer show (computex Show 2007) website. Link is provided below
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Big Treasure Chest For Future Kids

Big Treasure Chest For Future Kids is the title for the latest project initiated by Pierre Hoffmann. FAUST Film+Projekt was founded 1976 by author and documentary filmmaker Pierre Hoffmann. Big treasure chest is a longterm project with a growing number of participating countries. Implementation of the project consists of three fields of action: A. Children and young people in different countries / cultures are encouraged to express by creative means their values they want to share with their contemporaries worldwide as well as with future generations. B. These Messages are published in each participating country and exchanged internationally. Altogether production includes schools, exhibitions, film, TV, press and other media. C. Finally the harvest of production is presented in a summarizing exhibition. In a concluding ceremony the Messages are enclosed in the individual Treasure Chests to be stored in a museum for future generations.
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World�s longest underground bookstore opens for business.

Taipei August 20, 2006 The longest underground bookstore ever has opened this week in Taipei at Zhongshan and Shuanglien Metro station (MRT). Forty-five booths are selling a wide range of National and international Literature. Lu Chin-Cheng a book trader in Taiwan rented the underground walking area for selling books. Originally, this was intended to be a shopping area but failed due to a lack of customers. There are many discounts on book sales to promote the new shopping area. You will get up to 60% discount with some publishers if you buy more than five books. All the books are sorted by subjects.
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Google it yourself? German Duden lets Google concern about trademark protection.

Google asked the German publisher of the most respected German Dictionary the Duden to change its entry �googeln� as a verb. What�s the problem with that you might ask. The problem is that when it comes to search engine, Google seems to be the authority at present time. When it comes to law and justice especially in German speaking countries, the Duden has the authority when it comes to terminology. Once it is accepted as a verb in Duden you can use it freely. Nobody owns copyrights or patent rights on verbs. Therefore, you could for example run comparative advertisements stating, �He likes yahoo better than to google� Or �yes I did google and then found what I was looking for on msn�. Do you see the problem? In many countries, these ads are forbidden. The Duden already changed the entry in question. The verb "googeln" no longer is listed in the sense of �general internet search.� Instead, it says, �search the internet using Google search engine.� In addition, The word "Google" provides a note stating �registered trade mark�. Anyhow, people are forming and remodeling modern language as they wish and in this way for more information on this topic. �Google it yourself!� The link is provided below.
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Calling home free from Taiwan or elsewhere.

Calling home free from Taiwan or elsewhere to anywhere in the world. A special offer from Jajah enables you to connect anywhere in the world for free using your standard telephone. However, five minutes only after that, you must register and can make another call free. Then you will have to pay for additional calls onto a prepaid account. Here is how it works first go to http://www.jajah.com/ and enter your telephone number including the area code then choose the country you want to call and enter the phone number including area code you want to connect with. A few seconds later your phone will ring and you�ll hear a message in Chinese, after that you will be connected. You can talk for up to five minutes without registration. After registration, you can talk as long as you want. Callers do not have to install any software to make calls all you need is an internet connection to initiate the call and your standard telephone line. To make free calls visit the website http://www.jajah.com/ link is provided below.
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Talent search in Taipei city

Taipei June 24, 2006 Taipei city government announced that with more than 1,700 summer jobs being offered including some full time employments they are going to conduct a talent search activity. They welcome college students and fresh graduates to participate the activity at an underground shopping arcade of the MRT a at Chunghsiao east road this Saturday. Potential Employers are going to be there and participate in the activity such as Friday�s, Yamazaki bakery, Starbucks, Mr. brown Coffee, Asia pacific Telecom and King stone Co. to name just a few from more than thirty employers who will be there. The jobs and employment opportunities offered range from shopkeeper and service agent to technicians.
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Taiwan government imposes tough fines for hiring illegal foreign labors

Taipei March 21, 2006 Starting next month companies who hire foreigners without the appropriate working permits and visas will face the possibility of being find 750,000NTD. This is five times the current fine of 150.000. The council of Labor Affairs (CLA) announced the new regulation yesterday. The (CLA) estimates that there are about 20,000 illegal workers living in Taiwan. Until now, it has been impossible to bring this number down because many foreign labors simply run away every month. Labor Minister Lee Ying-Yuan stated the fine of 750,000NTD is the maximum possible amount that they could stipulate according by the Employment Service Law.
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Nigerian swindle letters and spam fraud activities are on the rise

The so-called Nigerian scam letters or also known as 419�s are taking over the internet in ever faster growing dimensions. These letters offer great sums of money and adventure oftentimes accompanied with a sad or touching story of a relative who was lost in a tragic accident. These letters intentions are to lure its victims in passing over immense sums of money ahead of performing the agreed money transactions. These international criminals oftentimes trick their victims into performing illegal border crossings in Africa, then beat, and in some cases even kill them. In June 1995 an American lost his live in Lagos while pursuing a scam and many others have been reported missing since then. If you receive any letter, Fax, telephone call, or emails offering cheap goods from African countries such as Nigeria. Don�t reply and inform the authorities. This websites email service was under these Nigerian criminal�s attack. The classified ad section was spammed too. For your safety, we recommend to open for your ad a so-called throwaway email account and to delete it once it has served its purpose here. Don�t engage into these business offers should you receive them in your email. For now, we do not recommend any interactions through our service outside Taiwan. Use your instincts and stay away from offers if you have the slightest misgivings. To get more information on 4-1-9 scam visit the United States Secret Service's website link is provided below
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Bird flu has arrived in Germany

15. February 2006 Schwerin/Berlin (dpa) Bird flu alarm in Germany after the dangerous H5N1 virus was found in some dead swans on a small island R�gen off the coast in North Germany. The bird flu is considered very dangerous and is often compared to the Spanish flu, which caused a pandemic in 1918 and killed more than 30 million People worldwide. The H5N1 virus has infected about 170 people most of them in Asia so far. Until now, there is no evidence for a human-to-human transmission, which could cause a pandemic similar to the Spanish flu in 1918. To read more about the Bird flu and fears tracing back to the Spanish flu visit the website http://news-service.stanford.edu/news a direct link is provided below.
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World trade center in Taipei hosts Asia�s largest book exhibition starting on February 7th

Asia�s largest book fair will be in the world trade center beginning on February 7. As usual, the exhibition will last a week and opened on two days for businesses and companies only. Private people can see the book show on February 9th to February 12th. To read the full coverage visit the website provided below.
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Freedom for more growth and what is human freedom!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel�s speech in Davos was the opening for the World Economic Forum. She addressed her Audience with �Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you very much for inviting me to deliver the opening address for this Forum. I know that this is a great honor for Germany, and I am pleased to be here.� She then continued her speech with �The title, "The Creative Imperative", will remind many people primarily of Immanuel Kant and his "categorical imperative", which called upon his readers to determine for themselves what is human freedom.� Angela Merkel then emphasized the need for creativity �Compulsion - to be creative� in her own words. Competition of ideas will shape the future of the countries and this would apply to everyone in this world. She further talks about Germany the land of Ideas and the problems the country is facing at the moment. She would like to see Germany back in the top three lists for growth, jobs and innovation in the next ten years. Angelica Merkel describes the main problem in Germany as �Jobs - our main problem in Germany - require growth and growth requires freedom.� Later in her speech, she makes a comparison to the "Wirtschaftswunder", the economic miracle. So it must be said that Angela Merkel who was born in East Germany and grew up there has not lived through the period of the (German Wirtschaftswunder) herself. To read Angela Merkel�s speech in English visit the website link is provided below!
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German government website Bundestag.de celebrates ten years of success!

The German website www.bundestag.de provides information about the German bundestag. Visitors can educate themselves on how the German government functions. For more than ten years now, this website has been a great success and has offered valuable information recourses. The Parliament Live web casting service Web-TV carries full audio-visual coverage of the plenary sittings of the Bundestag. Search the data base or the library of the German bundestag. Here you also can find the German basic law and download as a PDF file. For more information visit German government website link provided below.
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Department of information Taipei city government apologizes for �Macking� article!

The chief editor of the government website John J. Bucher apologized in an open letter on Taipei�s most popular English newspaper �The China Post� Quote;� I sincerely apologize to anyone offended by the recent (Macking in Taipei) on Taipei city government�s English Corner website� Quote end. The chief editor then admits that his posting was an error in judgment. John J. Bucher then criticized local news outlets for having made mistakes in their reporting of the incident. He mainly attacks Taipei�s Daily Apple Newspaper for overemphasizing the meaning of �Macking�. He then explains the articles were written for ESL students. In the letter it was argued that the local media�s misunderstanding of the term Macking proves the need of such a site. A note from taiwan-taipei.com�s editor: in our perspective there is no need of a government website teaching ESL student unnecessary street slang. The word Macking does not exist in any English dictionary and is probably used very locally. There have been incidences of government officials using terms like LP in an insulting way on national TV. An English standard dictionary can have more than 100, 000 vocabularies. Slang words can not be taught in any kind of classroom settings. They simply belong onto the streets. We recommend ESL speakers to stay with offshore English and not getting you embarrassed using insider slang.
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Taipei city government�s attempt to discredit foreigners a big failure and embarrassment!

Macking in Taipei the headline on Taiwanese news channels described a Taipei government owned website�s article which was indented to discredit foreign labors and visitors but obviously upset local Taiwanese women. The patriarchal Taiwan society got it all wrong this time not only insulting foreigners as the supposedly winners on the Taiwanese apology (meat marked) apology with statements like �Macking in Taipei is a guide to attract women� or �mistakes to avoid� and worst of all �For fourteen years I�ve been holding my dream girl. Failures: none�. This topic is so delicate that we better do not commend any further on this and just demand an apology to all foreigners contributing to Taiwan wealth and most of all to apologize to their female citizens for being one more time abused by a patriarchal society who has to measure everything in terms of manhood. Since Taipei government had to remove this page as quickly as they could we can not provide any more detailed information on this topic. But you�re free to comment on this below Just one last question, do your wives ever hit you?
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Information on Taiwan visa application is updated regularly!

Taipei government is providing useful insights into Taiwan visa issues. For most Taiwan visitors affordable accommodations and filing the right visa application can be assisted through the travel agencies. Find budget hostels in Taipei. Roommates and permanent accommodations are easy to find. To get more information on Taiwan work permits and other living in Taiwan topics visit the website link provided below.
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German government plans to invest billions into universities and science institutes

Passau Germany- The German government plans to invest heavily into universities and scientific institutions. The overall bill is estimated to exceed about 6,000,000,000 Euro in total till the end of this legislative period. Bundesforschungsministerin Annette Schavan (CDU) told the (Passauer Neuen Presse) �We have to protect Germans future as an innovative industrial site (location) and develop into a talent factory for extraordinary scientific offspring.� The six billion Euro investment is a part of a 25,000,000,000 Euro investment program which the Union and the SPD have agreed on during their negotiations for this coalition. The program is ought to be in place by the middle of February 2006. The main part of this investment will go to the science of health, the Nano technologies and the automobile technologies and development. Translated by Taiwan-taipei.com to read this news in German visit website link provided below
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Taipei December 17th World Vision Taiwan WVT collects Christmas gifts for poor children!

World Vision Taiwan WVT has managed to raise Christmas gifts for more than 60,000 children. Read the complete news report at the website link provided below
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Taipei Taiwan stocks are on the rise!

Taiwan stocks rose about 1.47 percent on Friday. This is the highest close in four month. The hope that consumer demand will continue till the beginning of next year is assumed to be a factor for this good result. To get more information on Taipei Taiwan stock markets visit the website below.
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San Jose wants new strategy for Down town nightlife going Hollywood

This article is about new strategies for policing the night bar and nightclub life in S.J. San Jose eventually is going to use some of Hollywood's practices to control nightlife activities. Video surveillance and late night closing hours are a part of the new strategy for controlling the streets. Dropping late night diners and club visitors onto the streets didn't seem to be a good idea. London for example turned after many years of closing hours for bars and the resulting violence on the street just the other way too. San Jose bar and nightclub owners are working on a concept of serving drinks till 2:00 am and staying open much longer. to read the full story on nightlife visit website link provided below
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Hostel (2006) to be released January 6th 2006

This movie is about two American backpackers traveling through Europe. They are eager to make quintessentially hazy memories with their new friend Oli. Oli is an Icelander they have met on the way. This movie about hostels and backpackers has been rated to be of violent content. Visit the website link below
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Who has the biggest artificial Christmas tree

Who has the biggest artificial Christmas tree in Taiwan? Near the Taipei 101 building at Warner village is probably the biggest artificial Christmas tree at least in Taipei or even Taiwan. Many foreigners experience a big nightmare before Christmas. Especially for those working in the childhood education field. Putting some effort into the Christmas decoration is more of the fun part, but for those who really care about Christmas, even a little bit, for the purpose of having some holidays or seeing the family or getting the 13Th month paycheck, Christmas in Taiwan is an artificial Nightmare. Back at home most foreigners will have some days vacation, or get up to 100% extra pay if not. But here they have to be Santa Claus, a rain deer, an angle a king No, not a king. For free! for fun! of course! And after doing it, getting on those red pants and that itchy beard, clowning the HOHOHO, working extra hours, canceling others and making less money than any other month of the year, the feeling of being disappointed is just around the corner. Where is my Christmas gift you want to say, but everybody knows you're coming from a good home so be quiet get some chemical help and smile. With a perfect timing you'll get your Christmas card and you can stick it into your red pants or find some stocking. Or think of Chinese New Year and those red envelopes with the 7/11 coupon good for a six pack Taiwan beer. Hey! smiling not grinning. You'll get unexpected two, three or even four weeks off. The boss is gone say in front of the whole staff �we'll pay you�� . Say your stupid �shie-shie-ni�� and watch your paycheck, one six pack Taiwan beer per week. Now this really doesn't make you want to see your family or does it? I am gone stay home this year burn some candles and do nothing. Santa Claus is on strike! A labor union for all Santa Claus and those poor rain deers selling American beer in Taipei's nightclubs. All I want for Christmas is you to smile happily and that artificial Christmas tree.
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Berlin city explores new pedagogic ways

German's capital city Berlin explores new pedagogic ways for young children! The project intents to increase students interest in science with mobile workshop-containers designed for nature science and future technologies. Berlin's natural science teachers are anxious to go ahead with the new educational project. To read the whole story follow the link provided below.
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Taipei Taiwan's English teachers chat

Taipei Taiwan's English teachers chat opens discussion forum for Taipei's teachers contest. Since we have to admit that the teachers contest wasn't a big success till now, we are going to delay the end of the contest till August 2006. Teachers who are interested in the contest can meet in Taiwan's teachers chat every night 10:00 pm for discussion. Taiwan Taipei com initiated the idea of conducting a teacher of the year contest and award the five top listed participants each an advertising web page, where they can post their resume, on our website with a direct link on our Front page well visible to all visitors. Until now, many teachers have registered with the teachers board, but none of them has posted his profile with the voting option. Some teachers complaint that it was too complicated or the procedure not explained clearly enough. Our staff will be available online every evening after 10:00 pm for questioning and discussion. In recent years, the job and employment search has shifted more and more from newspaper ads to online advertising. Our goal is to keep one big part of that classifieds employer and employee search for free. In order to make this work, we'll need your help because we don't have the resources to finance an informative news, education and knowledge program. So we invented the contest for English teachers, which could if everything works well, provide our website with useful content. This in turn would make the forum and ads section more attractive to potential employers . As a reward for your effort you'll be awarded as a very potential employee for the English teaching business on Taiwan Taipei's Front page. The contest is simple 1st: register in the teachers forum, not the chat. 2Nd: Open a new topic in �The teachers in the contest � section. As a subject type your name and teacher for example (Billy teacher) or (Tom teacher) and use the ad vote option for this post. 3rd copy the link of this post and edit your member profile. Here you can add this link as a foot note so it will be posted under each your comments and postings automatically. Have something like vote for me and the link. 4Th: Add the vote option for every new topic you post. How to count the votes will be a topic for the teachers chat. Maybe we'll need a jury to count out the votes. How many postings, how many votes very good, good, so so and bad. How many for the teacher directly and how many for the new topics. Or, we only count the direct votes! It's all left for discussion. Visit our teachers chat room after 10:00pm Taiwan time for discussion. Follow the link below!
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Dr. Lee Yuan-Tseh forced to apologize for education reform

Dr. Lee Yuan-Tseh forced to apologize for education reform The president of the Academia Sinica Dr. Lee Yuan-Tseh, was forced to apologize for the failure of the education reform which he initiated a decade ago. It is said that Taiwan's students work harder and harder till past 11:00 pm and lowered the quality of higher education in Taiwan. Lee was asked if he thought that his reform was a success. To read the full story on Taiwan's education reform visit chinapost.com News follow the link below.
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Kindergartens and buxibans in taipei taiwan

Important news for all kindergartens and buxibans in Taipei Taiwan! free advertisement for kindergartens, buxibans, elementary schools etc. Taipei's classifieds ad section grands kindergartens and buxibans to place their ads in the classified ads for free! Posting and viewing of all ads is for free! Taipei Taiwan Kindergarten and elementary school
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New TOEFL English Proficiency Test

The TOEFL Test has made some major changes. For students who want to study in the U.S.A this might be a concern. The new TOEFL guideline focuses more on the students communication skills. This could cause problems for students in Taiwan who especially focus in their English studies more on written English rather than spoken and listening comprehension. One of the biggest change in the TOEFL test is the new speaking section. Here students will have to express their own opinions on topics and discuss academic materials. To read more visit the website below
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Opera removes integrated ad banners!

Opera removes integrated ad banners! Great news for private English teachers who go on line while teaching English to private students. The Opera web browser has the superior zoom in and out function. It keeps the pages layouts, even you magnify to 200% or 300%. If you don't want your students getting headaches from reading too small fonds, or looking at overlapping page contents, you can use Opera. It's the fasted browser out there. Your students don't have to wait for pages to load. You can download Opera in all languages English, Chinese traditional, Chinese simplified, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean etc. No more advertisement is integrated into the browsers window. To download Opera just click on the link provided below. Select your language.
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Taipei's teachers board has added a new feature!

The classifieds ad section for Taipei's teachers forum has been added to improve our service. The classified ads buy & sell provides a free advertising platform for the purpose of buying and selling second hand goods. English teachers who are coming and leaving Taiwan can post their ads for free. To visit Taipei's teachers forum follow this link http://www.carookee.com/forum/Englishteachers. To enter the classified ads buy & sale directly visit the website below.
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The Language Barrier?

This article analyses the sociolinguistic situation in Taiwan. The article describes all aspects of the Taiwanese education system from the Japanese occupation to the current government Democratic People�s Party (DPP) of President Chen Shui Bian. It deals with the issues of universities and kindergartens and buxibans in Taiwan. The need of learning English as a second language for students in a more and more competitive world. To download this article as PDF copy and paste this url: http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/slc/EATS%20II%20Gareth%20Price.pdf to visit their website click on the link below.
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Central weather bureau changed its website

Taipei Friday August 17, 2006 Taiwan's central weather bureau changed its website providing 7-day Weather Forecast Island wide. They also have a special tourist forecast section. Providing detailed information in English on Typhoon warnings, earthquakes, and general weather. In addition they have a 48 hours satellite imagery and a radar display! For more update information Taiwan's weather visit http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V5e/index.htm central weather bureau website! Link is provided below.
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Number of deadly traffic accidents in Germany

Number of deadly traffic accidents continues to decrease Wiesbaden Germany August 25, 2005 The number of the traffic-death in Germany continues to decrease. In the first half-year 2005, 2418 people were killed in traffic accidents, ten percent less than during the same period last year. In comparison to the first half-year 2003, this means a decrease by 21 percent. Deadly accident 2005 reported the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. The number of traffic-death is declining for years those are the good news in some shocking numbers. The number of injured people is declining as well. In the first six months 202,077 humans were hurt in accidents, 1.2 per cent less than one year ago. Altogether the police registered about one million accidents, approximately 156,000 resulted in personal injury. In nearly all Lands of the Federal Republic the number of traffic-death decreased. In Bremen the number remained the same with four. In North Rhine-Westphalia the number of the traffic death rose by14 to 402. Based on the number of inhabitants the death toll lies at about 29 to 52 in a million. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has the highest with 52 fatal accidents per million citizens. Someone might just wonder what those numbers in Taiwan with so many scooters are. For the original story in German language visit this website below
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Rick Perry 's education reform

Rick Perry introduces his reform plans on the Office of the Governor Rick Perry website. His highlights are: Education, Teacher Compensation, High School Reform, Math and Science Initiatives, Early Childhood Education, School Safety, Higher Education Accountability System, Higher Education Participation and Work Study. Read the whole story and the 2002 Proposed 5�VPoint Plan. Follow the link below and click on education. visit http://www.governor.state.tx.us/priorities/education/
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Strengthening Higher Education

President Bush highlighted the need to prepare our students for the future. To read more about this follow the link to http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/education/ website below.
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Teachers bord

This forum gives you the oportunity to edit your own topics.
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