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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ DIPLOMACY

Brazil resumes visa issuance

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that Taiwanese passport holders could once again travel to Brazil as the Latin American country had resumed issuing tourist visas to Taiwanese. Ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said that for security reasons, Brazil had restricted the number of tourist visas it issued during the country's peak travel season. "The restriction did not target Taiwan or any specific country. It was purely a mechanism for Brazil to increase security during the Carnival season and was not politically motivated," she said. Yeh said the Brazilian representative office in Taiwan was expected to resume its visa service for Taiwanese in the next two weeks.



■ HEALTH

Malaria case reported

Health officials confirmed yesterday that a man in Taoyuan County had contracted malaria during a business trip to South Africa, making it this year's first imported case of the disease. Taoyuan health officials said the 49-year-old man was in South Africa from Nov. 11 until Jan. 8. Symptoms of the infection appeared on Jan. 20. The man checked into a hospital on Tuesday, whereupon the Centers for Disease Control confirmed he had malaria. Lin Hsueh-jung (林雪蓉), director of the Taoyuan County Government's Department of Health, said in recent years Taiwan had registered an average of 25 imported cases of malaria every year. Two cases were recorded in Taoyuan last year.



■ ECOLOGY

NTOU holds seminar

Keelung City's National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) will host a seminar on wildlife and biodiversity on Monday and Tuesday. About 600 participants are expected at the event, which will feature 216 presentations on research programs, a university spokesman said yesterday. The annual event, which began in the 1980s, is one of the most significant conferences on animal behavior and ecology research in Taiwan, the spokesman said. Referring to Taiwan as an island of rich natural resources endowed with diverse forests and wild animals, the spokesman said the seminar would advance the nation's wildlife studies by promoting conservation and supporting research. A student thesis competition will be held to encourage students to undertake wildlife research.



■ EDUCATION

KNU inks ties with MIT

Taoyuan County's Kainan University (KNU) has signed an eight-year cooperative agreement with the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to boost bilateral academic exchanges, KNU president Kao An-pang (高安邦) announced yesterday. The agreement made KNU the nation's only privately run university to have academic ties with MIT. Under the accord, KNU will collaborate with MIT to co-organize international symposiums at KNU and conduct faculty and student exchanges, Kao said. Under the agreement, KNU will select two academically outstanding students who have scored above 600 on the paper-based versions of the TOEFL exam to take courses each year at MIT, he said. MIT will open three fields of study to KNU students, including a mass media forum, comparative media studies and literature research. KNU, which already has a dual degree program with Waseda University in Japan, is seeking academic agreements with prestigious Ivy League US universities, including Brown University in Boston.
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