SCIENCE
Chiayi skeletons analyzed
Archeologists have unearthed human remains belonging to the earliest known residents of Chiayi, with an analysis showing that squatting and chewing betel nuts were common among the area’s people 2,500 years ago. The Tainan Branch of the National Museum of Prehistory this week said that two out of 13 skeletons discovered during work on the Chiayi railway elevation project were 2,500 to 2,700 years old. The two skeletons fully examined so far are believed to belong to a 35-year-old man and a 20-year-old whose sex could not be determined, it said. Squatting facets were found on the tibia of the male skeleton, indicating that Chiayi’s earliest residents habitually squatted, it said. A tooth belonging to the other skeleton was stained a brownish-red color, which the museum said was thought to have been caused by chewing betel nuts.
DIPLOMACY
Portuguese group arrives
A seven-member Portuguese parliamentary delegation arrived in Taiwan on Friday for a six-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The delegation is expected to exchange views with government officials and lawmakers on issues such as Taiwan-Portugal relations, economic resilience and regional situations, the ministry said. The delegation is led by Paulo Rios de Oliveira of the Social Democratic Party, and is made up of politicians who are firm friends with Taiwan and have continuously pushed for the nation’s participation in the World Health Assembly each year, the ministry said.
GOVERNMENT
Tsai touts women’s policy
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday highlighted her administration’s efforts to empower women, saying that women are encouraged to participate in public affairs and run their own businesses. Women comprise 42.9 percent of legislators, the highest percentage in Asia, while more than 37 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country are managed by women, Tsai said in a recorded speech at the opening of the Zonta Asian Inter-District Meeting in Kaohsiung. That is because of Taiwan’s gender-friendly environment, which motivates women to enter public office or start their own businesses, she said. In 2021, her administration launched the Women’s Empowerment Project in collaboration with Taiwan’s democratic partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to help women enhance their vocational skills, and to provide consultations and other resources to help them start a business, she said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Taipei concert promoted
Musicians taking part in a project collecting Austronesian music are to perform in Taipei today. Baobao Chen (陳玟臻), producer of the Small Island Big Song LIVE concert at the National Concert Hall, said that six core members of the project, including Taiwanese musicians Souljaljui, a Paiwan, and Putad, an Atayal, would perform. The other four musicians are Manu Desroches and Emlyn from Mauritius, Sammy from Madagascar and Richard Mogu from Papua New Guinea, Chen said. They would be joined by New Zealand-born singer-songwriter, director and dancer Olivia Foa’i, she said. Audiences would hear live music, and see dance performances and sceneries of the island nations represented projected onto the stage, while performers would share stories about the eight-year journey of the Austronesian project cofounded by Chen and Australian music producer Tim Cole, she said.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing
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