■ Education
Taipei surveys students
More than 2,000 children of mixed-marriages are enrolled in elementary schools in Taipei and about 40 percent of them have a hard time adapting to school life, according to the results of a survey released yesterday. Taipei City Government's Education Department conducted the survey last month and found that 2,199 children from mixed-marriage families are enrolled into primary schools around the city, accounting for 1.14 percent of the total enrollment. Most of them are from families with foreign parents and about 900 are from families with one or both parents from China, according to the survey.
■ Diplomacy
Gambian president visits
Gambian President Yahya Alphonse Jamus Jebulai Jammeh arrived in Taipei yesterday for a four-day state visit and was guest of honor at a banquet hosted by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Today Jammeh will go to Taoyuan to visit major construction projects, including the Chinese Petroleum Corp's new facilities. Jammeh will attend Double Ten National Day celebrations tomorrow, including a National Day rally and a fireworks show.
■ Diplomacy
Ombudsman pact signed
An international agreement between Taiwan and the Republic of Panama to enhance cooperation of the control power exercise was signed between Control Yuan President Fredrick Chien (錢復) and Panamanian Ombudsman Juan Antonio Tejada Espino yesterday. "The agreement testifies to the longstanding friendship between Taiwan and Panama while the signing assures that the two countries would further mutual exchanges on the exercise and the responsibility of the ombudsman authorities," Chien said.
■ Transportation
Better road signage urged
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) yesterday asked Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) to drive the entire length of National Freeway Route No. 3 and pay particular attention to the poor condition of highway signs. During a question and answer session at the legislature, Chiu showed Lin several photographs, including one of a sign in the Kaohsiung area that translated the Chinese characters for "downtown" (市區) phonetically, reading "Shih Cyu." Chiu also presented pictures of a handwritten exit sign for Lungtan (龍潭) and signs completely covered by trees. She also complained that many of the signs are too small.
■ Agriculture
Coffee promotion scheduled
Taiwan Coffee Festival Day will be established tomorrow to celebrate coffee production, officials from the Yunlin County Government's Cultural Affairs Department announced yesterday. The county government will sponsor a coffee-tasting event in Taipei to allow 12 coffee planters from Kukeng township to show off their produce. Taipei boasts the biggest number of coffee drinkers in the country. Kukeng township is where coffee was first planted in Taiwan at the beginning of the 20th century and it is the major coffee-producing area in the country. The Taiwan Coffee Festival Day will be also marked at the Chienhushan Recreational World and the Tahuashan Area in Yunlin County from tomorrow to Sunday with a wide variety of activities, county officials said.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
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