Taiwan’s government has helped 14 Taiwanese citizens leave Israel by land after the Middle Eastern country’s airspace was closed to civilian air traffic following recent escalations with Iran.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said the 14 Taiwanese left Israel and arrived in Jordan early Sunday by a bus arranged by Taiwan’s representative office in Israel.
Taiwan’s representative office in Jordan is now helping the Taiwan nationals return home, MOFA said in a press release.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Meanwhile, MOFA said it is in close contact with 9 Taiwanese citizens currently in Iran and will do its best to help if any of them wish to leave the country.
MOFA has since Friday raised its travel warning to an orange alert, advising Taiwan nationals to avoid traveling to Israel unless absolutely necessary. Also on Friday, MOFA raised the alert for Iran to the highest red alert level, urging Taiwanese nationals in the Islamic country to leave as soon as possible.
Under MOFA’s four-color travel alert system, the lowest level is gray, followed by yellow, orange and red.
The travel warnings were issued after Israel launched an airstrike against Iran, targeting the Iranian nuclear program, key government figures and nuclear scientists, killing at least 80 people and wounding 800 others over the past two days, according to a report in Al Jazeera.
Iran subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes and tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
RSS