Aid shipments arrive in Taiwan

THE first shipments of foreign aid arrived yesterday as Taiwan struggled to reach more than 1,000 people still stranded a week after its deadliest typhoon in half a century.

As plastic sheeting for makeshift housing arrived from the US and water purification tablets came from Australia, taxi drivers in the capital, Taipei, pitched in as well, driving rice and instant noodles to the island’s hard-hit rural south.

President Ma Ying-jeou, who has announced that the death toll from Morakot is likely to exceed 500, offered another apology for his government’s response to the disaster after families said more lives could have been saved. “Sorry we were late,” he told people in Pingtung County. “As the president, I will take full responsibility in getting the remaining work done well.”