■ SCIENCE
Space exhibit to open
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced yesterday it would hold an exhibition to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Launched on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the moon. AIT said the two-week exhibition called “New Era of Discovery” will be held in collaboration with the National Central Library from Monday to Aug. 2. The program will highlight NASA’s manned space missions and will include a poster show, film showings, a book exhibit and a series of lectures. AIT has also invited former US astronaut Marsha Ivins, a veteran of five space flights, to share her experiences. For more information, visit www.ncl.edu.tw or www. ait.org.tw/events/nasa.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Carbon emissions drop
Taiwan’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions last year decreased 4.77 percent from the previous year, the first fall in 20 years, a report released yesterday by the National Council for Sustainable Development showed. The volume of emissions for the year was 4.42 percent lower than in 2007, according to the report, which reviews the country’s sustainable development trends. Environmental Protection Administration Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) said the decline was partly attributable to reduced electricity consumption by industrial users, as a result of a drop in export orders amid the economic downturn. Discounts offered by the state-run Taiwan Power Company to encourage households to conserve energy also contributed to the decline, he said. The report cites statistics showing that people in Taiwan took 1.4 billion rides on public transportation last year, an increase of 90 million rides from the previous year. Electricity consumption per capita was down from 7.56 kilowatt-hour per day in 2007 to 7.45 kilowatt-hour per day last year, the report stated.
■ POLITICS
Huang, Chiu censured
The Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries under the Ministry of Justice yesterday said that former minister of foreign affairs James Huang (黃志芳) and former National Security Council secretary-general Chiu I-jen (邱義仁) ought to be barred from holding public office for two years because of their involvement in a scandal. The announcement came more than a year after the two stepped down for allegedly mishandling public funds in an attempt to establish diplomatic relations with Papua New Guinea. The committee said Chiu overstepped his authority when he failed to investigate a broker’s background. Chiu also failed to retrieve the money as soon it was found to be missing, it said. The committee said Huang bypassed protocols when he approved payments without setting up a mechanism to ascertain the money would be used appropriately.
■ WILDLIFE
Wanted: Crab escorts
The Kenting National Park Administration is seeking 30 volunteers to help escort land crabs on their journey to the sea during the breeding season. Land crabs live away from shore for most of the year, but during the breeding season female crabs carry their fertilized eggs and migrate to the sea to release them. The park administration has invited volunteers to help the crabs safely cross roads and to remove any discarded fishing nets blocking the crabs’ access to the sea. Volunteers will receive various souvenirs, park administration officials said. Volunteers are needed on Aug. 15, with online registration from Aug. 1 to Aug. 13
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