WORLD IN BRIEF : TAIWAN : Government Agrees to Ban Drift Nets

The Taiwanese government, under threat of U.S. trade sanctions, said that it will comply with a United Nations ban on fishing with enormous drift nets in the northern Pacific Ocean. Taiwan said it will comply by next July 1 with the ban on use of what environmentalists have been calling “curtains of death.” The huge nets can stretch across as much as 30 miles of ocean, killing all marine life in their path. “In the past, we said we respected the U.N. resolution in principle but did not make the final decision,” said Albert Lin, spokesman for Taiwan’s Coordination Council for North American Affairs. “This is the first time we are making an official announcement.” Lin said that Taiwan’s promise to end the use of drift nets by its fishing fleet was “not directly” tied to the threat of U.S. trade sanctions.