Two Taiwanese have left Bahrain on a charter flight arranged by the Japanese government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The move was part of ongoing efforts to help Taiwanese stranded in the Middle East return home.
The two Taiwanese were on Thursday accompanied by Taipei Trade Office in the Kingdom of Bahrain personnel via land to Riyadh, the ministry in a statement.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
Upon arrival in the Saudi Arabian capital, they were put on the same flight as a group of Japanese nationals Tokyo was also helping evacuate, it said.
The flight chartered by Japan departed from Riyadh on Friday and landed at Tokyo Narita International Airport yesterday morning, it added.
The ministry expressed its sincere gratitude to the Japanese government for the assistance it provided to the Taiwanese citizens.
“As partners in the Indo-Pacific region... this collaboration fully demonstrates the sincere friendship between Taiwan and Japan as they support each other in times of emergency,” the ministry added.
The two Taiwanese, who are expected to return to Taiwan in a few days, are among the 486 Taiwanese in the Middle East who have requested assistance from the ministry’s overseas missions, the ministry said.
As of Friday, 1,935 Taiwanese have returned home since regional tensions escalated following strikes by the US and Israel on Iran on Feb. 28, ministry data showed.
It has raised travel advisories for Israel and Iran to “red” — urging Taiwanese who are still in those countries to leave immediately.
The ministry also and placed neighboring Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait under an “orange” alert.
The ministry has advised Taiwanese to refrain from traveling to those countries.
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
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
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
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS