HISTORY
Human skeleton discovered
Excavators at a Spanish monastery complex on Keelung City’s Heping Island (和平島) have uncovered another human skeleton, the 10th such discovery since archeological work began there in May, the Keelung City Cultural Affairs Bureau said on Friday. The Spanish built Fort San Salvador during their occupation of northern Taiwan from 1626 to 1642, the bureau said. The project is being led by Tsing Hua University anthropologist Tsang Cheng-hwa (臧振華), with assistance from a team of Spanish researchers. The latest skeleton, which was unearthed on Thursday, had its hands clasped over its chest as if in prayer, the bureau said. A representative of the research team said that the skeleton was in good condition, but added that they would finish this stage of their excavations, before carrying out forensic tests to determine whether the remains were of Spanish ancestry.
HEALTH
Geese with avian flu culled
Hundreds of geese raised on a farm in Chiayi County were culled on Friday after it was confirmed that they had a highly pathogenic H5 subtype of avian influenza, the county’s Animal Disease Center said, adding that 1,862 geese, which the farm kept for breeding, were killed after the Council of Agriculture’s Animal Health Research Institute determined that they had been infected with the virus. On Tuesday, it sent workers to inspect the farm and took samples to test after the farm’s owner, surnamed Hung (洪), reported that many geese had died or laid fewer eggs than usual. The center urged poultry farmers to take precautions, such as keeping their poultry yards warm and ventilated, to prevent animals from catching the virus.
TOURISM
Bunker open for visits
An old military bunker in Hualien’s Cisingtan (七星潭) scenic area, which served Japanese soldiers during World War II, is to be opened to the public for the first time on Jan. 1. The site was a fortified bunker built by the Japanese to prevent US troops from making a coastal landing, Hualien County Government officials said yesterday. The bunker, which stretches for 200m in a mountainous area, had two 10-inch artillery guns to defend against air assaults. Wu Ming-Yuen (吳明遠), a division chief with the county government’s Bureau of Agriculture, said that 40 people would be allowed to visit the site at a time. It would be open to anyone on opening day, but from Jan. 2, visits would need to be booked in advance on its Web site at http://mambo.hl999.url.tw, Wu said.
LEISURE
YouBike to add ARC field
Foreign residents in Taiwan can register their personal information on the YouBike Web site once a field for the Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) number becomes available this week, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. Expatriates registering with YouBike for the first time could do so from Tuesday, department official Liao Yun-ling (廖苑伶) said. The tweak comes after a change to the YouBike rental policy required all users to fill in personal information, including a national identification number, on the Web site before making a rental. However, this new policy, which took effect on Dec. 1, caused an uproar among foreign residents, because the original rental Web site did not provide for an ARC number, effectively excluding foreign residents. Prior to the policy change, users simply used their EasyCard to rent a YouBike, after using their cellphone number to register, Liao said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
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