■ EDUCATION
Taiwan takes a gold at IOI
Taiwan won one gold and three silver medals at this year’s International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), which began on Saturday last week and ended yesterday in Waterloo, Canada, Ministry of Education officials said yesterday. Four Taiwanese high school students joined the annual games, which were attended by 336 students from 84 countries, the officials said, adding that each Taiwanese team member managed to grab a medal. The IOI is an annual computer science competition for secondary school students, which was started by Blagovest Sendov, a Bulgarian professor, in 1987. Taiwan joined the international competition for the first time in 1994. Last year, Taiwanese students won two gold and two silver medals at the 21st IOI in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, marking Taiwan’s best-ever performance in the contest. Taiwan is now seeking to host the 2014 games, the ministry said.
■ SHIPPING
Ports pledge cooperation
Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau Director-General Hsiao Ding-hsun (蕭丁訓) yesterday signed a letter of intent with his Guangzhou counterpart Chang Min (常敏) to promote cooperation and exchanges between the two ports on either side of the Taiwan Strait. The signing ceremony was attended by Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) and Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chuang Chi-wang (莊啟旺). Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang (萬慶良), who is currently on a visit to the country, was also present to witness the event. Hsiao said he hoped the new links would help Kaohsiung Harbor become a free-trade port, and he noted that in May, the harbor signed a letter of intent for cooperation with the port of Xiamen in southern China’s Fujian Province. Under the letter of intent, Kaohsiung and Guangzhou agreed to boost exchanges of personnel, information and experiences in harbor management.
■ METEOROLOGY
Water supplies sufficient
Although no typhoons have approached the nation so far this year, the water supply will remain sufficient until the end of the year, thanks to intense afternoon showers, the Central Weather Bureau said. Typhoons, which usually occur from July to September, are the major source of rainfall in Taiwan, the bureau said, noting that it is unusual that there have been no typhoons so far this year. Taiwan gets hit by an average of three typhoons a year, it said. The volume of plum rains, which are also vital to the maintenance of the water supply, has decreased because of the impact of La Nina, a phenomenon associated with cooler than normal water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, the bureau said.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Schools recycle batteries
Batteries recycled through a school program during the 2009-2010 school year amounted to 402 tonnes, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said. The EPA said the average battery recycling rate between 2007 and last year reached 48 percent, passing the EU’s minimum battery collection target of 45 percent by 2016. Among the 3,041 schools participating in the program, 140 schools made the distinguished list and 56 schools will be awarded up to NT$100,000. There were 238 more schools and 25,000 more students taking part in the recycling program than in the previous year, the EPA said, adding that 75 percent of the schools around the nation were actively involved.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
RSS