Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan News Quick Take

■ DIPLOMACY

St. Kitts embassy set to open

After nearly two months of preparations, the embassy of St. Kitts and Nevis in Taiwan is set to open next Monday, diplomatic sources said on Monday. Sources said Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) will attend the opening ceremony and congratulate Jasmine Huggins, who will serve as the charge d'affaires in Taiwan. Huggins traveled to Taiwan on Dec. 4 with St. Kitts and Nevis Foreign Affairs Minister Timothy Harris to prepare for the opening of the embassy. Taiwan established diplomatic relations with the Caribbean country in October 1983.

■ ENVIRONMENT

Official fights for butterflies

Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said on Monday that as valleys in the county's Maolin Township (茂林) and Mexico are the only locations in the world that serve as mass wintering sites for butterflies, he would push for city sisterhood ties between the two regions to jointly protect their unique natural resources. Yang made the announcement during an inspection tour of a purple crow butterfly observation path in the Maolin National Scenic Area. A volunteer tour guide said that Mexican President Felipe Calderon had launched measures to enhance the protection of monarch butterfly reserves in the country. In comparison, wintering sites for purple crow butterflies in the county's Maolin and Liouguei (六龜) townships and Taitung County are merely under the protection of local governments, the volunteer said, while advising Yang to consider forging ties with the Mexican city that has the highest concentration of butterflies over the winter.

■ CRIME

Caution urged in Ivory Coast

Taiwanese officials in Ivory Coast have reminded Taiwanese businesses to first collect and assess credit information on companies in West Africa before doing business with them to avoid being swindled, a spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Ministry officials stationed in Ivory Coast issued the warning in the face of an increasing number of Taiwanese enterprises that have allegedly fallen victim to trade fraud committed by companies operating in West Africa, the spokesman said. In many of the cases, official documents and contracts were written in French. The officials urged Taiwanese companies to be especially cautious when documents are written in languages other than English. Fraud rings often place large orders with local suppliers using shell companies to lure them into advancing relatively small sums of money, the spokesman cited the ministry officials as warning.

■ HEALTH

Hikers warned on chiggers

Health authorities in Nantou County yesterday reminded hikers in mountainous areas and grasslands to take precautions against chigger mites after nine suspected cases of scrub typhus were reported. Bureau of Health officials said one of the cases has been confirmed. Scrub typhus is an acute infectious disease caused by the bite of chiggers carrying Rickettsia tsutsugamushi. The mites are found in warm areas of heavy scrub vegetation where their hosts are wild rodents. Officials said that scrub typhus is found in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Asia. Its symptoms include fever, headache, sweating, swollen lymph nodes and congestive conjunctiva. The incubation period lasts six to 21 days. Antibiotics can reduce the risk of mortality to less than 1 percent, but without treatment the mortality rate may rise to 60 percent.