■ Education
Tu to take trip to UK, Italy
Education Minister Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) is scheduled to head for the UK tomorrow to attend an international meeting of education ministers, an official with the Ministry of Education said yesterday. According to the official, ministers of education from over 40 nations will take part in the conference on Monday to Wednesday. Asked whether China would be among the participants, the official said he was not sure. Tu will also travel to Italy on Thursday to take part in an executive meeting of the International University Sports Federation (FISU), during which he will back the Kaohsiung City government's bid for the right to host the 2011 Summer Universiade.
■ Customs
New import restrictions
Incoming passengers have been prohibited from bringing any live animals, plants or related products into the nation since the beginning of the year, customs officials said yesterday. The Cabinet approved late last year a new list restricting their entry to protect the local ecology, prevent epidemics and promote public health. The list includes live animals and related products with the exception of dogs, cats and rabbits that comply with the provisions of the animal disease prevention and control law, as well as dried or processed aquatic products. Also on the list are live plants and related products, as well as fresh fruit (plants that meet the flora epidemic prevention and control regulations are exempted). Customs officials said that passengers intending to bring animals, plants and related products not included in the prohibition list should fill out a customs declaration form and have the animals or products inspected upon arrival.
■ Ecology
Mites make right
A research team at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung has devised a new biological control method against the red mite, a common pest that causes serious damage to local fruit and flower crops, university sources said yesterday. The new technique employs Amblyseius womersleyi, a species of predatory mite, to inhibit the spread of the red mite, both reducing the use of insecticides and increasing net profits, the school said. The university said that although Amblyseius have long been known as a natural enemy of the red mite, scientists have had problems cultivating them in sufficient numbers and keeping them alive in containers long enough for transportation to distribution points. Now they have the know-how to keep amblyseius womersleyi alive for at least five days and that the next step of the research is to prolong the period to 14 days, it added.
■ Education
Student to join delegation
A senior high school student from Taipei has been chosen to join a Cabinet-appointed delegation that will attend a UN forum on women's rights in the US late next month. The Foundation of Women's Rights Promotion and Development will send the delegation to take part in a panel organized by the UN's NGO Committee on the Status of Women from Feb. 26 to March 9 in New York City, the officials said. Huang Chih-chi (黃致綺) a student at Taipei First Girls' High School, was chosen by the Taipei Municipal Commission on Promotion of Women's Rights and Interests from more than 20 students in the final round of a competition, the officials said. Huang will give a presentation to share Taiwanese girls' experience growing up and her work in helping victims of the Sept. 21, 1999 quake, they added.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift