DIPLOMACY
Czech center to open in Taipei
The Czech Republic on Monday said it would open a new center this week to boost cultural and diplomatic ties in Taipei, a move likely to anger China. Although the EU and NATO member officially maintains a “one China” policy, its officials have sought to foster close ties with Taiwan. “The Czech Centre in Taiwan will launch its activity on Friday” with an exhibition of Czech photographs, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The Czech news agency CTK quoted Czech Centres Director-General Jitka Panek Jurkova as saying that Czechs “want to be seen and heard in Taipei.” “The Czech Centre in Taipei is designed to deepen the understanding among the Taiwanese public of traditional and especially contemporary Czech culture,” she added. The foreign ministry has 28 Czech Centres promoting the Czech Republic in 25 countries across the world, but not in China.
SOCIETY
Poisoning deaths rise to 6
A woman passed away yesterday, bringing the number of people who have died in an apparent case of food poisoning in Taipei to six, health officials said. The people became ill after in late March eating at a Taipei branch of Polam Kopitiam, a Malaysian restaurant chain where a deadly bongkrek acid poisoning outbreak occurred. The 46-year-old woman had a liver transplant in mid-April and was moved to a regular hospital ward on Wednesday last week, the Taipei Department of Health said. However, she was transferred to an intensive care unit after her condition worsened on Monday evening. She was unable to recover and passed away yesterday afternoon, the department said.
SPORTS
Rakuten player fired over DUI
The Rakuten Monkeys baseball team yesterday terminated the contract of outfielder Chiu Tan (邱丹) after he was caught the previous day after crashing his car while driving under the influence (DUI). The Monkeys, one of six teams in Taiwan’s CPBL, said 23-year-old Chiu had breached the terms of his contract and was fired with immediate effect. According to the National Highway Police Bureau, Chiu was determined to have been drunk driving using a breath alcohol test after he crashed his vehicle into a guardrail early on Monday morning on a northbound section of Freeway No. 1 near Tainan’s Madou District (麻豆). No one was injured in the apparent single-vehicle collision, the bureau said, indicating that the case had been handed over to the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office. Chiu apologized in a statement. “As a professional baseball player, a husband and father, I’m sorry I let everyone down,” he said, adding that he regretted that his actions had harmed the Monkeys’ reputation.
SPORTS
Taiwanese win gold in Hanoi
Taiwan won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the ninth Aerobic Gymnastics Asian Championship, which concluded on Monday in Hanoi, Vietnam. The three-day competition featured more than 300 athletes from 14 countries and territories competing in 18 events, including aerobic dance. Taiwanese Wang Fei-chu (王飛掬), 14, won gold in the girls’ singles, while Chueh Tzu-cheng (闕子承), 12, won bronze in boys’ singles. Together, they won silver in mixed doubles on Sunday. The two excelled in a sport that requires balance between difficult movements while achieving aesthetics through rigorous training, coach Chang Chun-chi (張淳智) said. “Dedication and hard work are essential to achieving top results in this competition,” he said.
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
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
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
RSS