DIPLOMACY
Diet members to visit
A record 37 members of the Japanese Diet have signed up to attend the inauguration of president-elect William Lai (賴清德) and vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) on May 20, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. Lai and Hsiao highly value Taiwan’s friendship with Japan and have rich connections in Japanese political and private circles, Taiwan-Japan Relations Association Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chin-jen (陳志任) said. Although it is not easy to take leave to visit Taiwan during a Diet session, Japanese lawmakers have shown great enthusiasm in signing up for the ceremony, Chen said. The Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council is in charge of organizing the delegation, he said. The record number of participants shows that Japan attaches great importance to Taiwan’s new government, he said. In addition, 140 people from 15 non-governmental Taiwan-friendly groups from across Japan are to visit Taiwan to convey their congratulations to Lai and Hsiao, Chen added.
SOCIETY
New search planned
Authorities in Hualien County on Tuesday released photographs and prepared to launch a new search for German academic Ralf Klausnitzer, who went missing in Taroko National Park just days before April 3, when the region was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The Hualien Police Bureau’s Sincheng Precinct said that Klausnitzer spent the night of March 25 in a hotel in Hualien City before setting off at about 9am the following day for the park’s Tianxiang Recreation Area (天祥). He was reported missing to police on April 2, just one day before the earthquake struck, killing 18 people and injuring more than 1,100. Location data from Klausnitzer’s cellphone showed that it was in the Tianxiang area from March 26 until the morning of April 3, when the earthquake hit and the signal was lost, police said. After Klausnitzer was reported missing, police contacted area hotels and also searched popular hiking trails, cabins and tourist sites in the park on April 15, 17, 29, 30 and on Tuesday, but found no sign of him, the precinct said. Hualien’s police and fire departments are planning a new joint search in the area, it said. Klausnitzer, who is in his 50s, arrived in Taiwan in March to lecture at Tamkang University in New Taipei City and had planned to take a trip to Hualien before returning home, a friend of Klausnitzer wrote on social media.
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