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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Cross-Strait Ties
Travel-permit rules eased
The Mainland Affairs Coun-cil announced yesterday that starting March 1, ordinary citizens will not need to apply for permission from their companies or agencies to travel to China. The council and the Ministry of Interior have amended a law that required Republic of China citizens to obtain permits from their work-places to travel to China. Council Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said only government employees and workers from certain agen-cies will still need the per-mits. Government workers cannot stay in China for more than a month. Those who do need to stay longer than that must obtain special permits from their employ-ers, the council said.

■ Environment
Taipei probes raffle fraud
Taipei City Government's Bureau of Environmental Protection issued an apology yesterday for a scandal over a raffle aimed at encouraging people to recycle batteries. The bureau had commissioned Gillette Co to hold the raffle. The company has been accused of counterfeiting the raffle prize list and not giving out 101 computers as prizes. Bureau Director Chen Yeong-ren (陳永仁) said the city is investigating whether any of its officials were involved in the scandal.
He said the city will file fraud charges against the company and any officials it believes were involved in the scandal.

■ Politics
April court date for Lee
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) will be sum-moned to attend a hearing at Taipei District Court in April about a secret fund that was established to secure diplomatic relations with South Africa nearly 10 years ago. Presiding judge Liao Wen-yu (廖紋妤) decided yesterday that Lee would be summoned on April 14. Court spokesman Huang Jiunn-ming (黃俊明) said that Liao was planning to sum-mon another 15 witnesses in addition to Lee. Huang said that since the case concerns national security, the hearings would be held behind closed doors and the transcripts would not be made public.

■ Crime
Drug seizures up last year
The number of narcotics seized totaled more than 8,500kg last year, up 2.7 fold from 2002, statistics com-piled by the Department of Health showed yesterday. Officials said that not only the size of the narcotics haul had increased sharply, but the types had become more varied, and the use of marijuana grew by nearly 10 fold. Amphetamines made up half of the drugs seized last year, followed by ketamine, heroin, ecstasy and mari-juana. National Bureau of Controlled Drugs Director-General Li Jih-heng (李志恆) said the amount of ketamine seized last year surpassed that of heroin, and marijuana seizures totaled 121kg, compared to 11kg in 2002.

■ Education
Dutch offer scholarships
The Netherlands Trade and Investment Office Taipei is handing out NT$1 million scholarships to Taiwanese students pursing post-graduate studies in the 2004- to-2005 academic year.
There are 36 awards which will be given to 19 students enrolled in post-graduate programs at Leiden Univer-sity, University of Groningen, Utrecht Univer-sity, Delft University of Technology, Rotterdam School of Management and NIMBAS Graduate School of Manage-ment. Information on the scholarships can be obtained by contacting Ariel Lin at the trade office at (02) 8770-7621, ext 720.

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