■ Environment
Two spoonbills return to wild
Two black-faced spoonbills suffering from botulism at the Chiku Wetland in Tainan early this year were set free yesterday by the Tainan County Government after recovering. The two were among 17 sick birds that were found at the Chiku conservation area early this year, county government sources said, adding that another 15 of the endangered birds were set free Feb. 18 after receiving treatment. Seventy-three black-faced spoonbills that migrated from the Korean Peninsula and northeastern China between early December and early February to spend the winter at the Chiku Wetland have died of botulism. Tainan County Magistrate Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), who presided over a ceremony to set the two birds free, said Tainan County Hall will organize an international seminar on black-faced spoonbills in April. Su vowed to strengthen the management of the main habitat of black-faced spoonbills.
■ Shipping
Chinese vessels collide
Two Chinese cargo ships have collided near an outlying Taiwanese island, causing one vessel to sink and killing at least three of its crewmen, Taiwanese police said yesterday. The Haugang 508 sank after colliding with the Runda 402 Saturday night in rough waters near Tungyin island, which is close to China's southeastern coast, police said. Taiwanese patrol boats rescued four sailors and were still searching for three missing sailors from the sunken ship, they said. A Chinese patrol boat has also joined the rescue effort, they said.
■ Transportation
Gods say no to rail line
The nation's high-speed railway has hit a snag. The obstacle? A temple and its 300-year-old camphor tree. Rail engineers had planned for the line from Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in the south to cross three temples. Railway officials may have informed those at the temple of the coming demolition, but they forgot to ask the most important figures -- the temple gods. The railway appeared to be in the good graces of the first two temple gods -- Taoist monks threw divination blocks to ask the gods whether the temple could be relocated. The gods assented. Unfortunately, the last temple god proved to be more stubborn. The divination blocks gave a resounding "no" to the idea of relocation. Unable to trump the temple god, and in their desire to maintain cultural relics, the rail officials conceded defeat and agreed to have the line skirt the temple and its venerable tree.
■ Nuclear power
Former DPP head to fast
Former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) will stage an hours-long fast in front of the Executive Yuan today to protest the government's failure to hold a referendum on the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Lin, along with a group of anti-nuclear activists, plan to stage the fast from afternoon through late night. Premier Yu Shyi-kun has designated Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) to receive the petitioners and discuss the issue with Lin. Reiterating that a nation without nuclear power has been a common goal for the DPP and opposition parties, Cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the timing of a referendum on the fate of the plant needs further study and that the government will not rule out the possibility of holding a"consultative referendum" before laws governing a vote on the nuclear issue are enacted.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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