■ CRIME
NSC acts after threat
The National Security Council (NSC) ordered extra protection for President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), after the Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper received a postcard yesterday containing a threat to attack the dental clinic where she works unless she apologizes on behalf of her father for comments he made last month. This referred to the president saying that pro-blue supporters should swim to China if they like China so much. The neatly handwritten postcard was mailed on Wednesday from a made-up address in Taipei City, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. The bureau said the postcard had multiple sets of fingerprints on it but an investigation was underway to catch the perpetrator. The NSC has also alerted secret service agents to provide extra protection to guard Chen Hsing yu's residence and work place.
■ SPORTS
Stamps feature Wang
Taiwan Post next Monday will issue special stamp-collectors' folders featuring New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民) for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. Wang has been chosen by the Kaohsiung City Government as the official spokesperson for the international sports event. The stamps will be available in three different packages with varying prices. All three options include an A4-sized stamp bearing a picture of Wang. The priciest package, which will cost NT$300, will include three additional stamps of Wang in colors such as gold and silver. The middle option, costing NT$250, will include two additional Wang stamps in gold and silver, and the third package will include four additional stickers not featuring Wang. The folders will be available at post offices or on Taiwan Post's Web site.
■ CRIME
Teens arrested in Cambodia
Three Taiwanese nationals, including two teenage girls, have been arrested in Cambodia for trying to smuggle heroin out of the country, police said yesterday. The girls were identified as Lin Hui-min, 17, and Wu Chia-hsun, 16, who were each carrying 600g of the drug strapped to their thighs under their clothes at Phnom Penh International Airport, police said. Officers also arrested a man in the capital on Thursday in connection with the case, but did not provide details about him. The girls were detained on Wednesday after police searched them as they tried to board a flight to Hong Kong. "We always pay high attention to Taiwanese people now because so far most of the people arrested over drug crimes are Taiwanese nationals," airport police chief Chhuor Kimny said. Around half a dozen Taiwanese citizens have been detained trying to smuggle drugs through Phnom Penh airport in the past year.
■ TRADE
Agency welcomes Taiwan
The Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation has granted Taiwan observer status for two years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The international agency functions as an intergovernmental initiative to help less-advantaged countries benefit from globalization by helping them take a more active part in the work of the WTO and other trade-related organizations, as well as trade negotiations. Taiwan's permanent representative to the WTO, Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), has obtained an invitation from the international trade agency's executive director to attend all decision-making meetings of the organization, the ministry said.
■ RESEARCH
Pearl yields increased
Mariculture researchers at National Penghu University (NPU) have improved techniques to cultivate black pearls, providing a higher yield rate and shorter breeding period, university sources said. Ueng Jinn-pyng (翁進坪), director of NPU's Netcage Aquaculture Product Technique Research Center, said that with the aid of improved techniques 100 black-lipped oysters in the test group produced a total of 20 black pearls -- each worth more than NT$10,000 (US$309). Ueng added that the breeding period from seed oyster to pearl harvest had been shorten to three years, a year less than the conventional method typically used in Japan.
■ LOTTERY
Winners donate to charity
Three out of five people who shared the nearly NT$1.3 billion (US$40.24 million) prize in Tuesday's Big Lotto donated part of their winnings to charity, a Taiwan Lottery official said yesterday. Shan Jui-chiang (尚瑞強), chairman of the Taiwan Lottery, said that each of the five winners will receive NT$250 million, but NT$200 million after tax. Shan said that one of the winners, a 30-year-old woman, won after spending NT$100 on lottery tickets. She donated NT$3 million to charity. Another winner, a woman in her 60s, bought a single NT$50 lottery ticket and donated NT$100,000. Another winner is a middle-aged man who spent NT$2,000 on lottery tickets. He donated NT$500,000 of his winnings, Shan said.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
PLANNED: The suspect visited the crime scene before the killings, seeking information on how to access the roof, and had extensively researched a 2014 stabbing incident The suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei on Friday had planned the assault and set fires at other locations earlier in the day, law enforcement officials said yesterday. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said the suspect, a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen (張文), began the attacks at 3:40pm, first setting off smoke bombs on a road, damaging cars and motorbikes. Earlier, Chang Wen set fire to a rental room where he was staying on Gongyuan Road in Zhongzheng District (中正), Chang Jung-hsin said. The suspect later threw smoke grenades near two exits
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
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