DIPLOMACY
Fishery committee meets
Taiwan and Japan are from yesterday to Sunday holding their latest round of meetings in Taipei to resolve fishing disputes. The 10th meeting of the Taiwan-Japan Fishery Committee is to discuss and potentially update fishing regulations to help resolve frequent disputes between Taiwanese and Japanese fishers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release. Such issues tend to arise due to the overlapping of both countries’ exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea, the ministry said. This year’s meeting would again be convened by the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association. The ministry did not specify who would be in attendance, but usually officials from both countries’ fisheries agencies and coast guards are present. The Taiwan-Japan Fishery Committee was founded following the signing of the Taiwan-Japan Fisheries Agreement on April 10, 2013, to help resolve fishing-related disputes between the two nations in the East China Sea. The committee has met nine times, with Tokyo and Taipei taking turns to host.
TRANSPORTATION
Airport holds rehearsal
Lighting in certain areas of both terminals of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was intermittently dimmed for three hours starting at midnight yesterday as a rehearsal for “Earth Hour.” “Earth Hour” is an annual event started in Sydney in 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature to encourage people and businesses worldwide to switch off their lights for an hour to raise awareness of environmental issues. Passengers and staff at the airport early yesterday were informed through electronic boards and announcements in the terminals to minimize disruption to airport operations, the company said. The airport is to participate in the official “Earth Hour” event on Saturday next week from 8:30pm to 9:30pm with intermittent dimming or reduction of lighting in the same areas, it said.
ENVIRONMENT
NASA aircraft arrive
NASA on Wednesday deployed two research aircraft to Taiwan for a third time to help the nation improve its air quality management, the Ministry of Environment said in a statement. Like previous ones on Feb. 15 and Feb. 28, Wednesday’s flights to Taiwan are part of its Seven SouthEast Asian Studies Mission, a project monitoring air quality across Asia, the ministry said. The aircraft — a DC8 and a GIII — arrived at about 10:40am and were set to operate for two hours in the skies above Taiwan, it said. Department of Monitoring and Information Director-General Hsieh Ping-hui (謝炳輝) said that the DC8 flew from South Korea and the GIII from the Philippines. The GIII was to cruise between Pingtung and Taichung, while the DC8 was set to cruise between Tainan and Pingtung and at Tainan and Chiayi airports to analyze the impacts of topography, atmospheric circulation and pollutant sources on air quality, it said.
.
DIPLOMACY
Tsai congratulates pope
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Wednesday sent a congratulatory message to Pope Francis on the 11th anniversary of his election to the papacy, on behalf of the government and Taiwanese. Taiwanese share “profound respect for the compassionate path that you have steered during your leadership of the Catholic church,” Tsai wrote in the message, which was posted on the Facebook page of Taiwan’s embassy in the Holy See. Tsai also lauded Pope Francis for having “striven tirelessly to promote peace and goodwill, particularly in Ukraine and Palestine.” Taiwan “will continue to welcome any opportunity to work together to advance human fraternity, reconciliation, relief for the suffering, and care for our common home — Earth,” Tsai said. As the pope continues to inspire the world to “pursue the ideals of peace, justice, democracy and freedom,” Tsai offered her prayers for his good health, resilience and success. The embassy also posted images of Pope Francis and Tsai that were drawn using generative AI to join in Tsai’s tributes. The Vatican is one of 12 sovereign entities and the only one in Europe that maintains official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
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