Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said yesterday that his city wants to seek the right to host the 13th Youth World Baseball Championship (YWBC) after the championship series was canceled because the Taiwan team was refused visas to enter Venezuela, the host country.
The Switzerland-based International Baseball Federation (IBAF) canceled the Caracas tournament on Tuesday after the host country succumbed to pressure from China to refuse to grant visas to the Taiwanese baseballers. The tournament was originally scheduled to open today.
Hu said that canceling an international championship on the eve of its opening is a serious matter and that such a situation has never happened since the YWBC's first tournament was held in Japan in 1989.
The shambles in Venezuela reflects the universal principle that "politics should not affect sports," Hu said, expressing his appreciation for the IBAF's just handling of the situation.
Speaking about the central city's desire to host the 13th YWBC, which will be postponed for 12 months while the IBAF finds another venue for the tournament, Hu said Taichung is on the IBAF's priority list of possible host cities, after his city hosted the IBAF Intercontinental Cup tournament last year.
Japan and South Korea have also expressed their interest in hosting the international youth event.
Hu said August was not a good month to hold the tournament in Taiwan because of the hot weather, suggesting the IBAF hold the competition during the winter.
The mayor also said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should grant visas to the Venezuelan team should it be invited to attend the games if they are held in Taiwan, reiterating his call for no political interference in sport.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS