A giant yellow duck designed by Dutch artist Florentjin Hofman has exploded for the second time, eleven days after it went on display in a northern Taiwan port. The 18m-tall duck was supposed to be the star attraction for local New Year’s Eve celebrations but instead burst without explanation to the surprise of onlookers.
Taiwan President Ma Ying Jeou was mobbed by hundreds of angry mourners today at the funeral service for a young conscript who died after being abused by his officers.
Protesters shouted: “We want the truth” as Mr Ma, flanked by security guards, made his way to the funeral at the soldier’s home in Taichung.
More than 100,000 people had taken to the streets of the capital Taipei on Saturday following the death of Corporal Hung Chung Chiu.
He died after days of a rigorous punishment regime of push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises in sweltering heat.
He was just three days short of completing his 20-month service at the time.
Eighteen officers and NCOs have been indicted on charges ranging from abuse leading to death and involuntary manslaughter to imposing illegal punishments.
Mr Ma has already apologised and the minister of defence has resigned.
May 2013: Fishermen in Sonmiani Bay, near Karachi in Pakistan, have successfully released a juvenile whale shark that had become caught in their fishing nets after a considerable struggle.
A local fishing boat snagged a 3.5 m Whale shark in their nets, but, fortunately, the captain of the vessel, Muhammad Ismail, is one of the fishermen that has been trained by WWF-Pakistan to release any endangered animals that become trapped in their net. It took more than an hour to get this struggling animal free from the net without harming it.
Fishermen used to kill whale sharks for their liver oil, which was used for smearing hulls of fishing boats. In February 2013 fishermen killed a large female Whale shark and brought its carcass into Karachi Fish Harbour which created a media storm. Whale sharks are included in CITES Appendix-II putting them under strict regulatory control.
Whale sharks off Pakistan
Whale sharks are occasionally reported from the area but the status of the population is not known. They can be seen along coastal offshore waters of Pakistan as the area is thought to be an important feeding and breeding area.
Protection is important
Mr. Rab Nawaz, Director WWF-Pakistan stressed the need for protection of this species in Pakistan because their population is seriously dwindling. There is no natural predator of this largest known fish but these are killed by entangling in fishing gear. In order to protect this fish, WWF-Pakistan is persuading the provincial wildlife departments of Sindh and Balochistan to include Whale sharks in Appendix-I of the respective wildlife acts so that these gentle giants may be given the status of a protected animal. He further pointed out that since Wildlife Acts in both Maritime Provinces are being redrafted, therefore, it is the right time for Whale sharks to be included in them as protected species.
Mr. Muhammad Moazzam Khan, Technical Advisor (Marine Fisheries) WWF-Pakistan pointed out that there used to a substantially large commercial and recreational fishery for whale sharks along the coast of Pakistan in Pre-Partition Period, however, it stopped in 1960′s. Fishermen still kill these animals for their liver and even meat (used for production of fish meal for poultry); however, WWF-Pakistan has involved all major stakeholders in creating awareness among fishermen not to kill these animals. He lauded the role of captain and crew of the vessels for their efforts in releasing the juvenile.
Just a week earlier, fishermen off the coast of Gujurat, just down the coast from Karachi, released a baby Whale shark from their nets. Read more here.
July 2013. Taiwan’s National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium ‘released’ a whale shark into the wild that it had held in captivity for 8 years. The Whale shark was released with no preparation for life in the oceans, and was not tagged to enable scientists to track the animal in an effort to help it survive: here.
September 2013. Plans to create an artificial marine enclosure off the southern coast of Kenya and stock it with wild-caught specimens of the world’s largest fish – the whale shark – as a tourism attraction have been comprehensively rejected by the government of Kenya: here.
In early March, an international workshop in Xiangshan, Zhejiang Province, China, marked the start of an ambitious plan to restore a network of breeding sites for the Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern Sterna bernsteini, probably the world’s most threatened seabird.
After more than half a century with no breeding records, four adults and four chicks were discovered in 2000 on the Mazu Islands (administered by Taipei) off the coast of China’s Fujian Province. In 2004 another colony was found in the Jiushan Islands, off Zhejiang Province, but breeding failed after two typhoons hit the islands. No breeding birds were seen in the Jiushans until 2007, when eight Chinese Crested Terns and about 2,000 Greater Crested Terns returned. But the colony was raided by egg poachers, and terns have not nested there since.
In 2008 a new colony, believed to be the birds that nested earlier on the Jiushans, was discovered in the Wuzhishan Islands, 80 km to the north. They have returned to nest on the Wuzhishans annually, but nesting space has become limited, and the terns have started using less favourable sites. News of the terns has spread, increasing the risk of disturbance from photographers.
Following the poaching incident on the Jiushans, BirdLife International and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (BirdLife Partner) have been working with the Zhejiang Wild Bird Society on conservation education in Xiangshan. Teams of student volunteers have promoted tern conservation and persuaded their friends and families not to collect, buy or consume seabird eggs. Education programmes at schools and public events have raised awareness of the tern’s plight, and seabird egg poaching has been greatly reduced.
In July 2010, an international forum on seabird conservation, the first of its kind in China, was convened in Xiangshan. Inspired by a presentation on the restoration of tern colonies in the USA, (initiated by Dr. Stephen Kress of the National Audubon Society, BirdLife in the USA), the Xiangshan government and the Jiushan Islands National Nature Reserve provided more resources to prevent poaching.
The latest workshop included representatives of Zhejiang Province’s Ocean and Fishery, Forestry, and Environmental Protection departments. Leading Chinese research institutions contributed technical advice, and overseas experts presented their experience, including Caspian Tern restoration projects by Oregon State University (which will support the Jiushan Islands restoration programme), and translocation of Short-tailed Albatrosses by the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology, Japan.
The Wild Bird Society of Taipei reported on their preliminary success in using Greater Crested Tern decoys to attract Chinese Crested Terns on the Mazu Islands.
A small island in the Jiushans, close to the island used in 2004 and 2007, has been chosen as the restoration site. Nesting habitat will be improved and expanded, and tern decoys and audio playback systems will be deployed from early May. It is hoped that Greater Crested Terns will attempt to nest, and that Chinese Crested Tern will eventually join their colony. The island will be occupied by researchers 24 hours a day during the breeding season.
The project is sponsored by the Japan Fund for Global Environment and the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation (Hong Kong), with logistical support from the Xiangshan Ocean and Fishery Bureau and Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, and a small grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Memories of Japanese war crimes continue to poison Japan‘s relations with its neighbours. Many Chinese are still suffering the effects of a vicious campaign of germ warfare.
“Our unit did things no human being should ever do,” confesses Unit 731 member Yoshio Shinozuka. His unit developed the deadly pathogens which were used to infect 250,000 Chinese. Japan’s refusal to apologise for its actions, or to acknowledge Unit 731′s existence, has further upset its victims.
Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent shockwaves around Asia today when he announced plans to amend the country’s pacifist constitution.
He told MPs that he wanted to start by changing article 96, which requires amendments to be backed by two-thirds of both houses of parliament and then a majority Yes vote in a referendum.
Article nine renouncing war and belligerency was imposed by the US after the second world war but has since become part of the fabric of national life.
That worries Japan’s neighbours, who have endured centuries on the sharp end of the country’s imperial ambitions.
In particular, Japan is beating the war drum over control of a disputed island chain in the South China Sea.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying Jeou stepped into the fray, offering to broker a deal for joint development of the islands’ resources.
But Taiwan – which also claims the territory – is unlikely to make much headway, as China still considers Taiwan its own territory.
Japanese Defence Minister Onodera Itsunori implied last month that he wants the law changed to allow troops to be sent abroad when Japanese lives are at stake.
Taiwan‘s Buddhist rites “killing millions” of animals
Channel News Asia, 13 May 2012
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Tens of millions of animals, mostly fish and birds, are dying every year in Taiwan because of so-called “mercy releases” by Buddhists trying to improve their karma, according to animal welfare activists.
The government is now planning to ban the practice, saying it damages the environment and that a large proportion of the 200 million or so creatures released each year die or are injured due to a lack of food and habitat.
Around 750 such ceremonies are carried out in Taiwan each year, according to the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan.
Negotiations have seen some groups agreeing to halt the practice, but others have yet to accept a ban, Lin Kuo-chang, an official from the government’s Council of Agriculture, told AFP on Sunday.
Proposed amendments to current wildlife protection laws would see offenders facing up to two years in jail or fined up to 2.5 million Taiwan dollars (US$85,000) for such unauthorised releases, he said.
he Environment and Animal Society Taiwan said some native species are under threat because of foreign species released into the wild by religious groups: here.
A million workers and their allies marched in cities across Spain today in protest at the new government’s drive to strip them of their hard-won labour rights: here.
Riot police attacked a peaceful student rally against education cuts in Valencia on Monday: here. And here.
Tens of thousands of workers and youth participated in yet another mass rally outside the Vouli (Greek parliament) in Athens yesterday, demanding the overthrow of the Greek government and the so-called second bailout agreement imposed by the European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of huge reductions in wages and pensions and savage spending cuts in health and education: here.
Greece: Hello from the occupied hospital in Kilkis: here.
Finally I got the open letter to International public opinion written by famous music composer, politician and anti-memorandum activist Mikis Theodorakis. This is “the truth about Greece” is the title of the letter, where Theorodakis gives his own explanation about the dire situation Greece experience nowadays. A current situation with a long past. One might not agree on some parts, but would definitely applaud some others like corruption, bribes, arms sales: here.
Campaigners demonstrated outside the European Commission London office today over the EU’s imposition of further austerity packages on Greece: here.
Euro zone negotiates Greek bailout amid rising popular opposition: here.
Eurozone governments agreed today to loan Greece another €130 billion (£109bn) and write off €107bn (£90bn) of debts to private creditors – in return for unprecedented control over its economic policy and more pay and pension cuts: here.
Greek deal: More pain for workers, no end to Europe’s crisis: here.
The events in Greece show the true character of the European Union. It is not a means of achieving genuine European unity, but rather an instrument to subjugate all of Europe under the dictatorship of finance capital: here.
Organised workers and allies marched through central Athens on Wednesday in protest at regressive legislation that MPs are working on in a fresh bid to appease government creditors: here.
Berlin transport staff brought the German capital’s metro, tram and bus services to a standstill on Saturday in a 15-hour warning strike to bolster their demand for an above inflation pay boost: here.
Ireland: Lone parents and their children marched from Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance to the General Post Office on Saturday in protest at the Fine Gael-Labour government’s cuts to their benefits: here.
Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group announced on Saturday that it has raised wages by up to 25 per cent – the second significant pay rise in less than two years in the wake of a spate of workforce suicides: here.
USA: Deja Vu in Chicago as Occupying Workers Secure Victory. Allison Kilkenny, In These Times: “More than three years ago, a group of about 200 workers from Republic Windows & Doors organized a six-day sit-in demanding vacation and severance pay after suddenly being laid off near the holidays. A new group of about 65 workers locked themselves inside the same factory this week in a desperate move to save their jobs once again”: here.
October 2011: Taiwan is to impose a ban on shark finning – the practice of slicing off the animal’s fins on-board and then throwing away the body at sea – so that all sharks landed in the country must have their fins still attached: here.
It’s unlikely anyone’s ever complained, “Waiter, there’s a new species in my soup.” But the situation isn’t as rare as you might think.
A monkey, a lizard, and an “extinct” bird have all been discovered en route to the dinner plate, and now a new shark species joins their ranks, scientists report.
Fish taxonomists found the previously unknown shark at a market in Taiwan—no big surprise, according to study co-author William White.
“Most fish markets in the region will regularly contain sharks,” White, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Hobart, Australia, said via email.
In fact, he and a colleague had headed to the Tashi Fish Market specifically to “collect some material and to see whether there were noticeable differences in the [shark] catches from previous decades,” he said.
“Amongst a number of other species, we collected a number of Squalus species—one of which was this new high-fin species.”
The new species, Squalus formosus, is a three-foot-long (one-meter-long) short-nosed dogfish. It’s distinguished from other dogfish species in the Squalus genus by a particularly upright first fin on its back, a strong spine, and a very short, rounded head, White said. …
Prominent Singapore-based supermarket chain Cold Storage has joined the WWF Singapore Sustainable Seafood Group and marked its commitment with an announcement that it will stop selling all shark fin and shark products in its 42 outlets across the country: here.
Check out this video for a volunteer-run shark study in Honduras: here.
The government of the Marshall Islands has passed new legislation this week making shark fishing illegal within the entirety of its two million sq km, (750,000 sq miles) territorial waters, effectively making them the world’s largest shark sanctuary: here.
According to National Taiwan Ocean University‘s Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, the shark is only the 42nd that has been caught or sighted worldwide and the ninth in Taiwan since the species was discovered in 1976.
The shark was 3.9 meter long, weighed 350 kilograms and its mouth when opened measured 75 centimeters across. It was netted off the county’s Chenggong coast and was sold Tuesday for NT$18,000 (US$549) to a local shark museum where it will be displayed as a preserved specimen. …
LOS ANGELES — Scientists have finally identified a new species of megamouth shark that prowled the oceans about 23 million years ago, nearly 50 years after the first teeth were discovered and then forgotten: here.
