President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did not leave his airplane when it made a transit stop in Anchorage, Alaska, on the way back to Taipei yesterday. Instead he received Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, on board the aircraft.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tang Bi-a (
Tang said the president declined and told Burghardt that the US had caused him significant stress.
The US government had refused to allow Chen to make a stopover in any major US city other than Anchorage, or to stay overnight. Many have speculated that this was to express US displeasure with Chen's plan to push for a referendum on the country's bid to join the UN under the name "Taiwan."
On his first transit stop in Anchorage en route to Honduras last Tuesday, Chen said the restrictions placed on him by the US were "inconvenient, uncomfortable and indecent."
His second transit stop in Anchorage lasted less than an hour. The president's plane was scheduled to arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport last night.
Chen departed last Tuesday on a three-country visit to Central America. The highlight of the trip was the sixth leadership summit between Taiwan and its diplomatic allies in the region. The summit was held last Thursday in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
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
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
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
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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