■ENVIRONMENT
Fish pass dioxin tests
Following reports last week of dioxin contamination at a duck farm in Kaohsiung County, officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) confirmed yesterday that stocks of tilapia found at the farm were within safety limits. The EPA had come under criticism in the legislature earlier for failing to discover that the farm in question was breeding fish in addition to the ducks — which had been found to contain large amounts of harmful chemicals. Officials said analyses showed that the fish had dioxin levels between 0.260 and 0.412 picograms per gram (fresh weight), far below the limit of 4pg/g. However, Kaohsiung County authorities said that thousands of kilograms of tilapia would still be destroyed today as a precaution.
■CULTURE
Kaohsiung to set up zone
A special zone will be established to help preserve Pingpu culture after a park was destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in early August, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said yesterday. Yang was referring to the Pingpu cultural park in Siaolin Village (小林), Jiasian Township (甲仙), which was buried under mudslides triggered by the typhoon. The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China has commissioned a consultancy company to plan the new culture park and permanent housing units for the typhoon victims. Yang also said he had asked tax authorities to study the possibility of waiving land and house taxes for the permanent housing units, which are also being built by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.
■TOURISM
Janice Lai heads to China
Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) departed for China yesterday at the head of a large delegation to attend an international travel fair. It marks the first time that Lai has led a tourism promotion delegation to attend a travel fair in China in her capacity as president of the Taipei-based Taiwan Strait Tourism and Travel Association. Lai said prior to her departure that the delegation would introduce Taiwan’s natural scenery and other tourist attractions to prospective Chinese and other foreign travelers. The 190-person delegation, composed of representatives of 23 government agencies and business associations, as well as 64 travel agencies and hotel groups, will operate 60 booths in a Taiwan pavilion at the China International Travel Mart to be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, from today through Sunday.
■EDUCATION
MOE officials visit UK
Ministry of Education (MOE) officials are leading a group of school representatives on a visit to the UK as part of the preparations for an education white paper that is scheduled for release early next year, a ministry official said yesterday. The group, which consists of representatives from graduate schools; senior, middle and vocational high schools; and elementary schools, is being led by Liu Ching-jen (劉慶仁), director-general of the Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations. It will visit schools in London and Edinburgh, as well as attend an international education conference for British primary and secondary schools. Liu said the representatives would hold workshops and demonstrate their UK findings upon their return. The white paper for international education in elementary and secondary schools will be published next year to help lay a solid policy foundation, he said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its