■NATURE
‘National Day Birds’ on way
Gray-faced buzzard eagles, also known as the “National Day Bird,” will soon pass through Kending (墾丁), the Construction and Planning Agency said in a statement yesterday. To welcome the rare migratory birds, listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Kending National Park will hold an eagle-watching event that will include various bird-watching and environmental education activities. Appendix II includes species for which trade must be controlled to “avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.” The gray-faced buzzard may be the most famous of 200 bird species that transit through Kending National Park every year as they migrate, and because its migration period usually comes around the Oct. 10 national day celebrations, it is nicknamed the “National Day Bird.” The birds usually rest in Kending for about 20 days from early to mid-October and can be seen flying in groups above the ocean. They breed in eastern China, eastern Russia and Japan and winter mainly in Indochina, Malaysia and the Philippines. Their preferred habitat is low mountains, hills and foothills
■DIPLOMACY
AIT envoy assumes duties
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced that Eric Madison assumed his duties as deputy director of the Taipei Office on Friday. “A career foreign service officer, Madison served most recently as economic counselor at the American Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the past year,” said a statement released by the AIT. “Prior to that, he served as deputy counselor in the economic section at the American Embassy in Beijing.” Madison had previously served at the AIT as the deputy chief of the Economic Section from 1992-1995, the AIT added. In related news, the AIT yesterday announced that all its offices will be closed on Monday to mark Columbus Day in the US. The offices will re-open on Tuesday.
■TRAVEL
MOFA passes on advice
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday reminded all Taiwanese travelers to European countries, especially the Czech Republic, to carry proof of medical insurance at all times in case of random police checks. Chiu Jong-jen (邱仲仁), the director-general of the Department of European Affairs, said the Czech Republic representative office called the ministry last week to ask the government to pass on the advice to all those traveling to the country. Chiu said the message was not targeted at Taiwan specifically but generally to travelers worldwide. He also said random police checks are uncommon but it is always a good idea to carry all relevant documents while traveling abroad.
■DIPLOMACY
Sapporo office to open soon
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said its Sapporo branch office is scheduled to open on Oct. 24, with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. At a press conference in Tokyo, Representative to Japan John Feng (馮寄台) said the opening of the office holds special significance for Taiwan-Japan ties and the office will be able to serve more than 300,000 Taiwanese tourists that visit Hokkaido each year. Sapporo will be the third branch office under the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Relation Office in Tokyo in addition to Naha and Yokohama. Taiwan also has a representative office in Osaka.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found four men guilty of attempted murder in the 2017 stabbing of Spanish surfer Ignacio Prio on a Pingtung County beach in the final ruling in the case, sentencing them to three-and-a-half to six years in prison. The defendants had appealed their convictions for attempted murder in the first and second rulings, which had also led to prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half years to six years. The then-42-year-old Prio went to Jialeshui Beach (佳樂水) near Kenting (墾丁) on March 31, 2017, was attacked after he asked four men to remove their fishing lines from an area
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
ANOTHER IMPORT: A Filipina who arrived on Friday to visit family developed a fever on Saturday and test results yesterday were positive, making her Taiwan’s 465th case The government’s real-name mask purchasing system is to be continued until at least the end of the year, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported a new imported COVID-19 case from the Philippines. The center would continue to requisition mask production to ensure people can buy masks using the real-name system until the end of December, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman. While the CECC requisitions about 8 million masks per day to ensure there are enough for the real-name system, more than 10 million masks are produced per day
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