WEATHER
Temperatures to drop
The weather is expected to become cooler, with sporadic rain in some areas tomorrow and on Wednesday due to a stronger northeasterly monsoon and the arrival of a frontal system, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Showers are forecast in the nation’s north and east tomorrow and on Wednesday, while the weather in central Taiwan would change from mostly cloudy to sporadically rainy, the bureau said. Temperatures reached 30°C to 32°C in western Taiwan yesterday, and 27°C to 29°C in the east, the bureau said. Wu Te-jung (吳德榮), a professor at National Central University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, said that as the frontal system moves south toward the nation, clouds would build up over the north of Taiwan, bringing the temperatures there down today, he said. The front is expected to reach Taiwan tomorrow, and it would send the mercury to as low as 15°C to 16°C on Friday, and would also bring rain, the meteorologist said.
HEALTH
Swine fever carcass found
Tests on a pig carcass found in Kinmen County’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) came back positive for African swine fever, the Central Emergency Operation Center for African swine fever said on Saturday. The last time a dead hog was found washed ashore in the township was on Feb. 3, and it also was found to have the disease, the center said. Lieyu is on an island separate from Kinmen’s main island and is less than 5km away from Xiamen, China. To ensure that the disease had not spread to the seven active hog farms in Lieyu, quarantine personnel were dispatched to collect tissue samples for African swine fever testing, the center said. All tests came back negative. To date, 12 pig carcasses that washed ashore in Kinmen have tested positive for swine fever.
ASTRONOMY
Meteor shower to peak
Stargazers in Taiwan are to have a good chance to view the Lyrid meteor shower when it peaks on Wednesday, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. Observation conditions should be fair after 10:30pm tomorrow and before dawn on Friday, the museum said. Astronomy buffs can expect to see 23 shooting stars per hour during the peak, compared with an average of 18, thanks to less light interference from a crescent moon, the museum said. The Lyrid meteor shower is also known for producing bolides — extremely bright shooting stars that are brighter than Venus, it said. The museum said that it would broadcast the event live on its Web site. The meteor shower would be visible to the naked eye if the weather is good, it added.
SOCIETY
Restaurant offers hope
A Taipei restaurant that offers work opportunities to Hong Kongers seeking political asylum in Taiwan opened for business yesterday. The restaurant in the Gongguan (公館) area is called “Aegis” in English. Its Chinese name (保護傘) refers to the umbrellas that have been adopted as symbols of political resistance in Hong Kong. In a Facebook post on Thursday, it thanked its supporters “for never giving up or deserting us, and always staying true with your support and help.” The project is being led by Daniel Wong (黃國桐), a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who provided volunteer legal services to protesters arrested during the Hong Kong protests last year. Wong, a Kowloon City district councilor and member of the Hong Kong Election Committee, said at a recent forum that Hong Kongers are not asking for help from Taiwan’s government, but hope the country can provide refuge for those who need it.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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