DIPLOMACY
AIT director appointed
Former US foreign policy advisor to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Joseph Donovan Jr has been appointed managing director of the Washington office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Donovan has served as the US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and as US consul general in Hong Kong/Macau. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of minister counselor, Donovan’s Taiwan experience includes three assignments with the AIT as acting deputy director, political chief, Kaohsiung branch chief and language student. Donovan has a masters degree in national security affairs from the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University. Donovan’s foreign service assignments include deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Tokyo and director of the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the US State Department. He replaces Barbara J Schrage at the AIT Washington office.
RETAIL
E-shopping boosting sales
The nation’s e-commerce platform providers have prepared more items for the Lunar New Year holiday shopping period, aiming to boost sales ahead of the festival. Shopping platform operator PChome Store Inc said it has prepared 5,400 different types of snacks and drinks, up 40 percent from last year, from 22 countries. PChome said online shopping has become one of the major channels for Lunar New Year shopping as it saves time and the inconvenience of carrying goods and waiting in line.Sales of Lunar New Year products, especially food and drink, over the past two weeks have grown by 30 percent from the previous two weeks, it said. Online shopping platforms Yahoo Kimo, Momoshop, GoHappy, United Daily News Group’s und.shopping.com and many other sites have also set up designated areas for Lunar New Year shopping.
HEALTH
CDC warns on Bali rabies
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged the public to be on guard against rabies when traveling to Bali, Indonesia, and said two people have died there after contracting the disease. CDC Deputy Director Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said that a large part of the island’s dog population is afflicted with rabies, and around 100 people report dog bites daily. Chou urged the public to be cautious of cat and dog bites while traveling to the island. According to the CDC, rabies has caused two deaths in Bali since the middle of last year.
MILITARY
Ministry swaps postings
Commanding Army General Lee Hsiang-chou (李翔宙) is to take over as deputy minister of defense for armaments while the current deputy minister is to become the new chief of the army, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced on Friday. Both appointments are to take effect on Thursday. Yen Teh-fa (嚴德發), a former deputy army commander, assumed his current post as deputy defense minister just five months ago, whereas Lee became army chief in August 2011. MND spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) said the changes were made based on the military’s needs and the terms of duty, adding that the job swap was in accordance with relevant regulations. The ministry has another deputy minister responsible for policy. That post is currently held by Andrew Hsia (夏立言), a career diplomat.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS