MILITARY
Taiwanese to be honored
A ceremony to honor Taiwanese Tseng Sheng-kuang (曾聖光), who was killed while fighting in Ukraine on Nov. 2, is to be held today at one of the largest churches in Lviv, his paramilitary unit said. The service is to start at 2pm at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the Carpathian Sich Battalion said on Facebook. The unit, which comprises Ukrainian and foreign volunteers, said that Tseng “entered the ranks of the 49th separate rifle battalion Carpathian Sichi on June 19, 2022.” The 25-year-old Hualien native, who served in Taiwan’s military from 2017 to last year, “proved himself as a disciplined, balanced, brave warrior,” the unit said. Battalion press officer Vasylyna Nakonechna said Tseng’s mother, wife and sister would attend the service.
DIPLOMACY
Czech official mulls visit
Czech Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Jiri Kozak is planning to visit Taiwan this month, sources said yesterday. Kozak’s visit would be a rare occasion where a senior member of a non-allied country’s foreign ministry visits Taiwan, sources said. A visit could be seen as further improvement in Taipei-Prague ties, they said. Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavsky last week at a summit said that a deputy minister “would visit Taiwan soon,” without disclosing details. In September, Czech Senator Jiri Drahos led a delegation including Czech Deputy Minister for Education, Youth and Sports Radka Wildova and Czech Deputy Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Jana Havlikova to Taiwan. Lipavsky in April thanked Taiwan for a US$1.5 million donation to help Ukrainian refugees who had fled to the Central European country.
COVID-19
New cases fall 23.6 percent
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 18,571 local and 40 new imported COVID-19 cases, as well as 61 deaths. The number of new domestic cases fell 23.6 percent from a week earlier, the CECC said. The deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s. All but one had underlying health issues, while 29 were unvaccinated against COVID-19, the CECC said. New Taipei City reported the most new cases with 2,960, followed by Kaohsiung with 2,538 and Taichung with 2,398. Taoyuan reported 1,966 new cases, Tainan 1,801, Taipei 1,608, Changhua County 948, Pingtung County 562, Yunlin County 511, Hsinchu County 508, Miaoli County 426 and Hsinchu City 412. Nantou County had 363 cases, Chiayi County 341, Keelung 266, Yilan County 265, Chiayi City 254, Hualien County 204, Taitung County 138, Kinmen County 60, Penghu County 39 and Lienchiang County three, the CECC said. Taiwan has so far reported 13,562 deaths from COVID-19.
AVIATION
AirAsia to resume flights
Malaysian carrier AirAsia yesterday said that it would resume flights between Taipei and Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 1, while services between Taipei and Sabah would resume on Dec. 10, and those between Taipei and Chiang Mai on Dec. 15. The airline on Saturday resumed flights between Kaohsiung and Kuala Lumpur following a two-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first post-pandemic AirAsia service to Taiwan took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 at 5:25pm on Saturday and landed at Kaohsiung International Airport at 9:55pm, the airline said.
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
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