EARTHQUAKES
Taitung rocked by temblor
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rocked Taitung at 7:44am yesterday, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). The epicenter of the earthquake was about 79.4km northeast of Taitung County Hall and occurred at a depth of 27.5km below sea level, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The quake had a magnitude of 4.0 in the Changbin (長濱) and Chenggong (成功) districts and a magnitude of 3.0 in Donghe (東河) district in the same county, while it had a magnitude of 2.0 in other cities in eastern, central and southern Taiwan, the center said. No immediate casualties were reported as of press time. A magnitude 6.1 earthquake jolted Pingtung County at a depth of 20km on Feb. 26, the largest earthquake on Taiwan proper since a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Kaohsiung on March 4, 2010, the center said.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EU drivers’ licenses ready
Taiwanese passport holders with local drivers’ licenses can now apply for licenses in 13 European countries without having to sit a test, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The move is part of an effort to reduce inconvenience, a ministry official said, adding that Taiwanese who obtain a drivers’ license for any of the 13 countries through the scheme can also drive freely in 26 other EU member states. The ministry said it is still working on including other EU members in the scheme. Slovakia is the latest European country to grant Taiwanese such privileges. From March 1, Taiwanese who are in Slovakia for more than six months can submit their local drivers’ license for authentication to the Taiwanese mission in that country. Applicants can then obtain a local license from the Slovakian authorities.
CULTURE
Kaohsiung festival planned
Pop singers and groups from South Korea and Japan are scheduled to perform next month at a music festival in Kaohsiung that will also feature Taiwanese stars, event organizers said. South Korean male groups CNBLUE and Dong Bang Shin Ki, Japanese pop band W-inds and Taiwanese singers Show Luo (羅志祥), Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) and Ken Wu (吳克群) are among the big names expected to perform at the first ever E-DA Super Asia Music Festival that starts on April 28. The two-day festival will feature a five-and-a-half hour live show each day, said the organizers, E-DA Cultural Creative Industries Co and Friendly Dog Entertainment. The event, to be held at E-DA World, will also include food displays and a creative products market.
ENVIRONMENT
Earth Day events planned
A series of Earth Day events featuring campaigns initiated by about 100 local NGOs, enterprises and student societies will be held from today until May, organizers said yesterday. The celebrations in observance of Earth Day, which falls on April 22, will highlight activities developed by participating groups, the Taiwan Environmental Info Association (TEIA) said. “Instead of giving everyone a theme to follow, we are simply coordinating activities devised by the participants,” TEIA secretary-general Chen Jui-pin (陳瑞賓) said. Vision Youth Action said it was pushing for the introduction of “eco-friendly sanitary towels” so women could contribute to environmental protection. Another participant, the HIMA Foundation, said it intended to plant about 5,000 trees in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Yingge District (鶯歌).
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost