■ENVIRONMENT
Fish pass dioxin tests
Following reports last week of dioxin contamination at a duck farm in Kaohsiung County, officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) confirmed yesterday that stocks of tilapia found at the farm were within safety limits. The EPA had come under criticism in the legislature earlier for failing to discover that the farm in question was breeding fish in addition to the ducks — which had been found to contain large amounts of harmful chemicals. Officials said analyses showed that the fish had dioxin levels between 0.260 and 0.412 picograms per gram (fresh weight), far below the limit of 4pg/g. However, Kaohsiung County authorities said that thousands of kilograms of tilapia would still be destroyed today as a precaution.
■CULTURE
Kaohsiung to set up zone
A special zone will be established to help preserve Pingpu culture after a park was destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in early August, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said yesterday. Yang was referring to the Pingpu cultural park in Siaolin Village (小林), Jiasian Township (甲仙), which was buried under mudslides triggered by the typhoon. The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China has commissioned a consultancy company to plan the new culture park and permanent housing units for the typhoon victims. Yang also said he had asked tax authorities to study the possibility of waiving land and house taxes for the permanent housing units, which are also being built by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.
■TOURISM
Janice Lai heads to China
Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) departed for China yesterday at the head of a large delegation to attend an international travel fair. It marks the first time that Lai has led a tourism promotion delegation to attend a travel fair in China in her capacity as president of the Taipei-based Taiwan Strait Tourism and Travel Association. Lai said prior to her departure that the delegation would introduce Taiwan’s natural scenery and other tourist attractions to prospective Chinese and other foreign travelers. The 190-person delegation, composed of representatives of 23 government agencies and business associations, as well as 64 travel agencies and hotel groups, will operate 60 booths in a Taiwan pavilion at the China International Travel Mart to be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, from today through Sunday.
■EDUCATION
MOE officials visit UK
Ministry of Education (MOE) officials are leading a group of school representatives on a visit to the UK as part of the preparations for an education white paper that is scheduled for release early next year, a ministry official said yesterday. The group, which consists of representatives from graduate schools; senior, middle and vocational high schools; and elementary schools, is being led by Liu Ching-jen (劉慶仁), director-general of the Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations. It will visit schools in London and Edinburgh, as well as attend an international education conference for British primary and secondary schools. Liu said the representatives would hold workshops and demonstrate their UK findings upon their return. The white paper for international education in elementary and secondary schools will be published next year to help lay a solid policy foundation, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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