■ CRIME
Teen arrested in drugs probe
Police arrested a 19-year-old senior high school student implicated in the smuggling of more than 6kg of marijuana into the country, Taipei County authorities said on Friday. The aviation police discovered the marijuana in items registered as snow boots shipped from Canada at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Following the delivery of the drugs to Taipei County, the police arrested the student, identified only by his last name, Wang, when he went to pick up the package. Wang told police that he was paid NT$50,000 (US$1,550) to handle the pick-up for a man nicknamed "Ah Kuang," and that he did not know the shipment contained marijuana.
■ ENERGY
Wind-power subsidiary opens
Leading wind-power firm Vestas Wind Systems A/S of Denmark opened a subsidiary company in Taiwan on Thursday, saying the nation was an "ideal place" to develop the alternative energy source. "Taiwan relies on imports for its energy needs, has environmental concerns and has a shallow seashore on its west coast, so it is an ideal place to develop wind power," said Thorbjorn Rasmussen, president of Vestas Asia Pacific. Taiwan has great potential for this "modern energy" as it is hoping to install 2,000 megawatts in wind-power projects by 2010, he said. "The purpose of launching Vestas Taiwan Ltd as a subsidiary is to further develop a local organization, including a larger after-sales and service department, for maintaining turbines in Taiwan," Rasmussen said.
■ AGRICULTURE
Premier urges tea protection
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday urged tea farmers not to let the nation's top-quality tea sprouts and tea producing technology flow overseas in order to protect Taiwan's competitive advantage in the industry. Chang made the comments while presenting awards at a ceremony in Taichung County on the opening day of a tea culture festival. The festival is being sponsored by the Taichung Tea Commercial Association with the aim of promoting the county's tea produce. Chang said the nation produced a total of 19,000 tonnes of tea last year, with a production value of NT$4.35 billion (US$135 million). He expressed hope that the nation's tea industry would develop based on the principles of "quality, sanitation and safety" in line with government policies to promote food safety in the agricultural sector. He urged domestic tea farmers to work to produce a wider variety of top quality teas in order to help "Taiwan tea become the best in the world."
■ AGRICULTURE
Fair promotes local produce
A traveling fair featuring fruits and other agricultural products is being held at a number of supermarkets in Indonesia, introducing Taiwanese produce to the southeast Asian nation's upper middle class and Chinese-speaking groups, a spokesman for the event's organizers said yesterday. The fair runs through Feb. 19, the spokesman said. The exhibition displays a wide range of foods, including fresh fruits, organic produce and processed food. Fruits such as Ponkan mandarin oranges, bell fruits, grapes, pineapples and persimmons have been included in the fair, the spokesman said. The event marks the beginning of the government's plan to promote agricultural produce in ten potentially lucrative markets, the spokesman said. The other nine countries targeted by the government are Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Brazil, Malaysia, Turkey, Vietnam and Spain.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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