■ ENVIRONMENT
Kaohsiung turning off lights
Kaohsiung environmental protection officials are urging city residents to switch off their lights for one hour on Saturday evening in support of the global “Earth Hour” campaign. The lights should be turned off at 8:30pm, in tandem with major cities around the world, as part of an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions and conserve energy, the officials said. Earth Hour is an international event initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund and held on the last Saturday of March each year. It asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness of the need to take action on climate change. Officials said 370 cities worldwide would participate in this year’s campaign. People could use the one-hour lights-out period to take a walk with their families, ride a bicycle or enjoy Kaohsiung’s spectacular nighttime beauty,” they said.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Photo exhibition opens
A photo exhibition titled “Under the Sea” opened yesterday at the National Taiwan Museum and will run until the end of May. The exhibition, sponsored by the museum, the Taiwan Underwater Photography Association and the Taiwanese Coral Reef Society, has 116 photos showing marine life and ecology in the coral reefs around Taiwan. The photographs were taken by members of the Underwater Photography Association. Lin June-chung (林俊聰), assistant curator of the museum, said the exhibition aims to raise public awareness of the need to conserve marine ecosystems. “The photographs taken underwater record the cruel fact that our marine environments has become increasingly polluted,” he said. Amateur divers nationwide number more than 600,000, Lin said.
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
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
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