SOCIETY
Zoo mulls elephant plan
Shoushan Zoo in Kaohsiung on Sunday said it has won the approval of Korat Zoo in Thailand for a cross-border breeding proposal for its elephant Ali. Shoushan Zoo director Chuang Hsuan-chih (莊絢智) said the Korat facility, also known as the Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo, has agreed to let Ali, a 40-year-old female African elephant, mate with one of its male elephants if Ali is still able to reproduce. Shoushan is collecting data on Ali’s hormone levels to determine if the middle-aged elephant can still breed, Chaung said. If the tests are positive, then discussions with the Thai zoo will be made on whether to have Ali shipped to Thailand for the breeding attempt or make other arrangements, he added. Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild and zoo advocates said that elephants in modern zoos can have life spans close to those living in more natural conditions.
TOURISM
New Matsu ferry to open
A new direct ferry service between Matsu and Fuzhou, China, is scheduled to open tomorrow, with a one-way journey taking only a little more than 20 minutes. A one-way ticket fare has been set at NT$675, the Lienchiang County Government said, though this might be changed later. The first direct ferries between Matsu’s Beigan Island (北竿) and Huangqi in China’s Fujian Province will depart from Beigan and Huangqi at 11am tomorrow, and ceremonies will be held on the two sides to celebrate the opening of the new route, the county government said. As of Thursday, ferries will depart at 10am and 3pm daily from the two ports, it said. The direct ferry that links Nangan Island (南竿) in Matsu and Mawei in Fuzhou take about two hours each way.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
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