■ TRAVEL
Taitung-Japan flights set
Direct round-trip charter flights from Taitung to Japan are scheduled to start in May to boost tourism in eastern Taiwan. From May 1, travelers will be able to fly direct from Hokkaido to Taitung and vice versa on five-day package tours, which will cost less and offer shorter travel time than other routes, Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-Chen (鄺麗貞) said. In addition to Green Island and Orchid Island, the county's cultural heritage and festivals are major attractions for Japanese tourists, Kuang said. He also vowed to promote visits to Taitung in other countries and territories in the region, including Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asian nations.
■ SCIENCE
FAO okays screening tests
Screening techniques for foot-and-mouth disease that were developed by researchers at a laboratory run by the Council of Agriculture have won the approval of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and have proven to be capable of determining infection within a short time, council officials said yesterday. The techniques, which were developed and refined by the council's Animal Health Research Institute, employ state-of-the-art gene chips to provide accurate and timely screening services, the officials said. Gene chips, which are also known as DNA microarray, are a miniaturized device designed to analyze DNA sequences. They are used in drug development and quarantine screening. The method was certificated by the UK-based Pirbright Laboratory last year as part of the FAO's quality reviews for screening techniques used in some 40 labs worldwide.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
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