Tue, Jun 13, 2023 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  ENVIRONMENT

  Water shortage alerts lifted

  A water conservation alert for Taichung has been lifted and an alert in Kaohsiung was lowered, as water availability in drought-stricken parts of central and southern Taiwan has improved, the Central Emergency Operations Center said yesterday. The Liyutan Reservoir (鯉魚潭水庫) and the Techi Reservoir (德基水庫) in central Taiwan were filled to more than 70 percent of capacity, reducing concerns of water shortfalls in the Taichung area, the center said. Those reservoirs had been at 36 percent and 48 percent of capacity respectively at the beginning of last month, but heavy rains pushed their reserves to higher than 60 percent of capacity by the beginning of this month, it said, adding that more rain pushed those reserves even higher over the past 10 days. In the south, the flow of the Gaoping River (高屏溪) remains stable at more than 20 cubic meters per second, and water levels at the Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫) — the biggest reservoir in southern Taiwan — had gradually risen, the center said. The Zengwen Reservoir, which was at 7 percent of capacity on June 1, had increased its reserves to about 12 percent as of last night, Water Resources Agency figures showed.

  DIPLOMACY

  Ex-US officials visit Taipei

  Former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger is leading members of a Washington-based think tank on a trip to Taiwan, and is scheduled to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other senior officials to exchange views on regional security issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. During their stay from Sunday through Friday, Pottinger, who chairs the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) China Program, would visit the Ministry of National Defense, the Coast Guard Administration and the Ministry of Digital Affairs to exchange views on national security and strategy, digital resilience and information security issues, the ministry said in a statement. Other members of the delegation include FDD chief executive Mark Dubowitz and FDD senior fellow Jacob Nagel, who previously served as the head of the Israeli National Security Council and as an acting national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Pottinger worked in the White House for four years in senior roles on the National Security Council, including as deputy national security adviser from 2019 to 2021. In that role, he coordinated the full spectrum of the US’ national security policy.

  CULTURE

  Koran restoration complete

  The restoration of a 500-year-old handwritten Holy Koran has been completed, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation said. The 500-page manuscript, heavily worn down by wear and tear, was presented to foundation founder Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師) as a gift in 2020 by Tzu Chi volunteer and Muslim Faisal Hu (胡光中), who is based in Turkey. However, Cheng Yen found cigarette beetles — a type of bug commonly found in old books — in the manuscript and turned to the National Taiwan Library to restore it. Hu and volunteer Wu Ying-mei (吳英美), who was deputy director of the library at the time, were able to help, the library said. The restoration took 35 months, including a pause of about one-and-a-half years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before Hu, library director Tsao Tsui-ying (曹翠英) and restorers at the library’s Book Hospital presented the restored work to Cheng Yen in Hualien on Sunday last week. This is the oldest book from the West to be restored by the library, Tsao said.
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