ENVIRONMENT
Riding bicycles encouraged
Visitors are encouraged to ride bicycles around Green Island (綠島) instead of driving to keep land crabs from being crushed as they cross roads to reproduce in shallow coastal waters, the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration said yesterday. The appeal was part of the agency’s campaign aimed at protecting the land crabs during their mating season and to promote ecotourism on Green Island. Visitors are also encouraged to escort the crabs across roads in sections where there is heavy traffic, the agency said. Ecotourism last year became a major priority for the agency after the introduction of eco-friendly hotels and a restaurant, it said, adding that there is also a campaign to replace cars and motorcycles with bicycles and electric scooters.
EDUCATION
MOE, France reach accord
Minister of Education Wu Se-hua (吳思華) yesterday returned from a six-day visit to France where he and his French counterpart agreed that the two nations would cooperate extensively in the areas of teaching Chinese as a second language and sinology, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE). Wu met French Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research Thierry Mandon for a breakfast meeting on the second day of his visit and reached a consensus on academic exchanges, the MOE said in a statement. In recent years, about 10,000 French people have studied Chinese thanks to promotional efforts by the French government, the ministry said. In the future, the MOE is to put a heavy emphasis on teacher training as a result of the agreement. It is also to encourage young French students and academics to come to Taiwan and exchange ideas.
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 pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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