ECONOMY
FTA talks to start ‘soon’
Taiwan will officially begin free-trade talks with New Zealand “in the near future,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, following the recent completion of a joint feasibility study into a bilateral economic cooperation agreement. However, a specific timetable for the talks was not mentioned in the press statement released by the ministry. “The ministry hopes that negotiations will be smooth and bring concrete results,” it said, adding that the pact is bound to benefit and further expand Taiwan-New Zealand economic relations. In an interview earlier this month, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said the highly anticipated talks could be launched “by the end of May.”
HORTICULTURE
Orchids go to Chelsea
Taiwan will present locally produced orchids with a dragon theme at the Chelsea Flower Show in London to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the upcoming London Olympic Games, according to a Taiwanese orchid association. Some orchid petals will look like the golden scales of a dragon, said Tseng Chun-pi (曾俊弼), secretary of the Taiwan Orchid Growers Association and head of Taiwan’s delegation to the show. Small sky lanterns wrapped in traditional Hakka flower cloth will accompany the dragon orchids as symbols of the country, Tseng said. “The beautiful orchids are blessings we have brought from Taiwan,” he said, adding that 20,000 orchids of 50 varieties will be presented this year. The 99th annual Chelsea Flower Show, recognized as the Oscars of the horticultural world, will run from Tuesday until May 26. The show has been a success in showcasing Taiwan’s orchid industry: Moth orchid exports to the UK increased from US$980,000 in 2009 to US$2.53 million in 2010, with the figure rising to US$3.52 million last year.
CRIME
Taiwanese cleared of fraud
Philippine prosecutors yesterday dismissed a case against 72 Taiwanese allegedly involved in a fraud ring. Davao City prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence” to prove that the suspects used electronic equipment seized in a police raid on illegal telecommunications operations. Prosecutors also threw out charges leveled by police such as breaching the Philippines’ Electronic Commerce Act and illegal possession of firearms. Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau and Philippine police authorities apprehended the 72 Taiwanese suspects, along with six Chinese suspects, in an April 18 raid on three phone fraud operation sites in Davao City. The six Chinese suspects have since been released. Immigration authorities in the Philippines said they would seek to have the Taiwanese nationals deported.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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