■DIPLOMACY
Burghardt concludes visit
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Raymond Burghardt returned to the US yesterday, concluding his four-day visit to Taipei to brief Taiwanese officials and opposition leaders on US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to China. Burghardt arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, only days after a joint statement was issued by Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in Beijing. The trip was aimed at clearing the air on Taiwan’s place in US-China-Taiwan relations and explaining the US government’s views on a number of other issues, including its economic agenda, US arms sales to Taiwan and the controversy surrounding Taiwan’s relaxation of its regulations on US beef imports.
■CULTURE
Foundation set to sign MOU
The Memorial Foundation of 228 and Taipei City Government are set to sign a memorandum of understanding today to cooperate on projects with the city’s 228 Memorial Museum. Foundation chief executive officer Liao Chi-pin (廖繼斌) said the foundation plans to open its national 228 memorial museum in 2011. The museum will be located on Nanhai Road where the American Institute in Taiwan’s culture and information section used to stand. Since the city’s 228 Memorial Museum was established in 1997, Liao said they have more display items than the national 228 museum, but the national museum’s advantage is that it has more comprehensive archives than the municipal one. “Basically, we want the exhibitions held by the two museums not to repeat or overlap with each other,” he said. “We also want to share our resources ... families of victims do not care whether the museum is national or municipal.”
■CRIME
Baggage handlers nabbed
Three baggage handlers at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were arrested for stealing cash and other valuables from passengers’ luggage, airport police said yesterday. “Three baggage handlers have been detained for stealing a wallet containing ¥20,000 (US$400) from a Japanese passenger’s checked-in luggage. We are investigating if more baggage handlers are involved,” airport police told reporters. The Japanese man flew from Taiwan to Okinawa on Nov. 18. When he retrieved his luggage upon arrival, he saw that it had been opened and the wallet was missing, so he asked Okinawa officials to inform Taiwanese authorities. During questioning on Tuesday, three baggage handlers confessed to stealing from luggage for about two years, a Taoyuan airport police officer who requested anonymity said. “They stole valuables while loading luggage inside the airplane’s cargo hold, as there is no security camera there,” he said.
■CULTURE
Flower exhibition to open
The Shihlin Official Residence Chrysanthemum Exhibition opens on Saturday and will feature about 100 kinds of chrysanthemum, including 22 kinds being shown at the annual exhibition for the first time, Taipei City’s Parks and Street Lights Office said. The exhibition will also feature a number of special activities on weekends including chrysanthemum painting shows, saxophone performances and hand puppet shows. To mark next year’s Taipei International Flora Expo , the exhibition will feature nine zones displaying 55,000 pots of chrysanthemum, the office said. The exhibition is open from 8am to 7pm and runs until Dec. 13. For more information visit www.2009chshow.com.tw.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
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