■ Transportation
New MRT line opens
The Xiaobitan line of Taipei's MRT system will open at noon tomorrow, officials with the Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. The 1.9km, two-station line has a passenger capacity of 4,140 per hour and branches from Qizhang Station on the Xindian Line, terminating at Xiaobitan Station, the officials said. A regular-length train will be in operation from tomor-row but this will be replaced by a shorter, three-carriage train starting in 2006, the officials said. The interval between each service will be from eight to 12 minutes during peak hour, 12 to 15 minutes off peak and 15 to 20 minutes before 7am and after 10pm, they said.
■ Cross-strait ties
High-tech workers sought
The government will offer more generous incentives to lure Chinese high-tech professionals, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chair-man Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday. Chiu made the remarks after listening to an assessment report on a "cross-strait science and technology exchange policy" made by the National Science Council (NSC). Chiu said that according to the report, an average of 130 Chinese academics visit each year to lecture or do research. Most of them are doing post-doctoral research in basic science. He said those who are approved by the NSC to visit for profes-sional activities average 1,000 every year.
■ Politics
Doctor attends hearing
Taiwan High Court judges hearing the pan-blue alliance's suit challenging the March 20 election yes-terday summoned Shin Kong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital deputy superintendent Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥) for questioning. They wanted to ask Huang -- who served as secretary of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) medical team -- about the March 19 assassination attempt against Chen. Huang said he didn't tell Presiden-tial Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) that "the bullet is inside the president's body" when Chiu was holding a news con-ference to tell the nation that Chen had been shot. Huang said the situation at the time was not clear enough to determine whether any bullet was inside Chen. Huang was questioned for about an hour and a half.
■ Cross-strait tiesbr />
MAC mulls MBA program
China-based Taiwanese businesspeople, as well as Fujian-based business-people, may be able to participate in an executive masters in business admin-istration (EMBA) program in Kinmen, according to Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). Council officials said Ming Chuan University had also expressed interest in holding the EMBA classes. Chinese businesspeople enrolled in the classes would be able to enter Taiwan on a three-day tourist visa as classes would most likely take place on the weekends.
■ Crime
Cambodia ousts suspects
Eight Taiwanese men have been deported from Cam-bodia after failing to prove that they intended to marry Cambodian women, police said yesterday, citing sus-picions they were involved in human trafficking. The men were detained last Wednesday while travelling with prostitutes to their hotel, said the chief of the Phnom Penh police anti-human trafficking division. The men claimed they were in Cambodia because "they wanted to marry Cambodian women, but they had not asked permission from their government," officials said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard