FISHING
EU to assess ‘yellow card’
An EU delegation is to evaluate the effectiveness of measures to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Taiwan, an EU official said on Thursday. The European Commission in October 2015 gave Taiwan a “yellow card” and warned that the nation was at risk of being identified as uncooperative in the fight against unregulated fishing. The EU official, who asked not to be named, said the withdrawal of the yellow card would depend the measures implemented to curb illegal and unregulated fishing. Taiwan’s fishing regulations have since improved, Council of Agriculture deputy head Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said.
WEATHER
Tropical storm brings rain
A tropical depression east of the Philippines is this year’s 20th tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau said. As of 2pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Khanun was 530km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west-southwest. Rain is expected in northern, eastern and southern Taiwan with extremely heavy rain possible in some eastern parts of the nation today and tomorrow, although the tropical storm is not expected to make landfall, the bureau said.
TRANSPORT
Wyoming ink license deal
Taiwan and Wyoming have signed a reciprocal agreement that allows licensed drivers to get a license in each other’s territory without taking written and road tests, a media release issued by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said on Thursday. The agreement takes effect immediately. Wyoming is the 25th US state to have entered into such an agreement with Taiwan.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
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