ASTRONOMY
Meteor shower approaches
Stargazers will have an opportunity to see the Eta Aquarid meteor shower when it peaks on Saturday, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. Astronomy buffs can expect to see up to 50 shooting stars per hour during the peak period from Friday to Saturday, it said. Sky watchers in mountainous and suburban areas where there are no bright lights or air pollution will be able to see the shooting stars with the naked eye, it added. In central Taiwan, Hehuanshan (合歡山) or Alishan (阿里山) will be ideal viewing spots, while in northern Taiwan, Yangmingshan (陽明山) will be the best, the museum said, advising astronomy enthusiasts to watch the sky to the southeast to see the shooting stars.
SOCIETY
Facebook top choice: poll
More than 80 percent of Taiwanese have Facebook accounts, a survey on social network use by people over the age of 12 showed yesterday. Taiwanese on average have four social media accounts, with Facebook taking the lead with 90.9 percent, followed by Line at 87.1 percent, the poll by Innovative DigiTech-Enabled Applications and Services Institute showed. Line use among all age groups topped 80 percent — except for those aged 55 or above, where the percentage fell to 60 percent. Most users of social networking sites, especially YouTube and Professional Technology Temple, are male, the survey found. Only on three social networking sites — Sina Weibo, Pinterest and Snapchat — did female users outnumber males.
ENTERTAINMENT
Four films win in Houston
Four Taiwanese films on Sunday received awards at the 50th WorldFest-Houston International Film and Video Festival, an independent international festival that is one of the oldest and largest film and video competitions in the world. Lokah Laqi (只要我長大), by director Laha Mebow, won a special jury award for feature drama. The film depicts the story of three children growing up in a secluded Aboriginal village in Taiwan. The three other Taiwanese gold-award recipients were Sea Pig (海豬仔), a feature film by Huang Chun-hua (黃駿樺); Packages from Daddy (心靈時鐘), a feature film by Tsai Yin-chuan (蔡銀娟); and Barkley (小貓巴克里), an animation by Chiu Li-wei (邱立偉). The festival, which honors independent films and filmmakers, is one of the three original international film festivals in North America, the other two being in San Francisco and New York. This year’s event featured about 60 feature films and ran from April 21 to Sunday.
DIPLOMACY
Nova Scotia inks deal
Taiwan has reached a reciprocal driver’s license agreement with the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada, the ninth Candian province to sign such an arrangement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The agreement, which came into effect on Tuesday last week, allows licensed drivers from Taiwan and Nova Scotia to apply for a license in each other’s territory without having to take road or written test, the ministry said. Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s four Atlantic provinces and the second smallest. Taiwan also has reciprocal driver’s license agreements with Quebec, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. It has similar agreements with more than 20 US states, including Maryland, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
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