■Crime
Police intercept gun shipment
A large shipment of contraband firearms was discovered over the weekend in a container aboard a Panama-registered cargo ship at Kaohsiung Harbor, prosecutors said yesterday. Acting on a tipoff, investigators intercepted the Consistence after the container vessel arrived at Kaohsiung Harbor from the Philippines Saturday evening. Investigators opened a container aboard the ship and discovered eight large cases containing a number of firearms, including two military-issue M-16 rifles, five submachine guns, 43 pistols of various brands and 6,059 rounds of ammunition. Among the ammunition were shotgun cartridges and dum-dum bullets. "The serial numbers of the two rifles had been removed in an apparent attempt to block any tracing of their origins," said Wang Tze-min, a secretary with the Investigation Bureau's Kaohsiung Harbor office. "Based on this finding, we suspect that some military or government officials in the rifles' country of origin might be involved in the illegal gun trafficking," he added. As most of the firearms were wrapped in Philippine newspapers, Wang said he is almost certain that they were shipped from there.
■ Cross-strait ties
Ma pushes Sungshan flights
Sungshan Airport could be used as the country's representative airport once direct air links across the Taiwan Strait are opened, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday. Ma said the Taipei City Government will not only continue to push for the opening of direct air links, but it will also suggest that Sungshan Airport be used along with Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport to provide convenient service for Taiwanese businesspeople working in China. Noting that Sunday's opening of indirect chartered flights between CKS International Airport and Shanghai's Pudong Airport was as a mere "contingent and temporary" approach, Ma said direct Sungshan-to-Hongqiao flights would be a much more practical and realistic approach.
■ Tourism
Sapporo flights now regular
A charter flight service between Taipei and Sapporo has been upgraded to regular flights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. MOFA officials said that -- after long-term efforts and several rounds of consultations with Japan -- the president of Taiwan's Association of East Asian Relations, Hsu Shui-teh (許水德), and the president of Japan's Interchange Association, Rejiro Hattori, signed an aviation agreement on behalf of their respective governments last Thursday, which became effective the same day. Sapporo became the fifth destination in Japan after Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka to which Taiwan air carriers maintain regular flights.
■ Education
PRC-university texts OK'd
The Mainland Affairs Council has agreed to allow the sale of Chinese university textbooks, an official said yesterday. The official said that initially only academic books will be allowed in. "We'll decide later whether to allow entry of other categories of books in the future," the official said. Advisers to the council have also endorsed a proposal to allow local publishers to publish Chinese magazines printed in traditional Chinese characters. Publishers must obtain government approval, plus legal authorization from their Chinese counterparts. University officials said they do not think that the measure will have much of an impact on local campuses.
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