■ CRIME
Man sentenced over heroin
A Cambodian court sentenced a Taiwanese man to 22 years in prison for trying to smuggle 0.8kg of heroin out of Cambodia, a court official said yesterday. Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Chhay Kong said he sentenced Lin Ko-chih, 41, on Tuesday. Lin was also handed a fine of 60 million riel (US$15,000). Police arrested Lin in October last year after finding heroin in his clothes when he checked in for a flight to Taiwan at Phnom Penh’s international airport. Nou Chantha, Lin’s lawyer, said the heroin belonged to Lin’s best friend, who had asked him to bring a substance to Taiwan to be used in the production of make-up. The lawyer said he would appeal.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Taichung hikes trash fees
The Taichung City Government’s Environmental Protection Bureau said yesterday that garbage treatment fees in the city would be raised from the start of next year to reflect increased transportation and waste disposal costs. The bureau said garbage fees in the city have been unchanged for seven years, while waste treatment costs have increased by NT$400 per tonne. If treatment fees are not raised, the city could face a garbage crisis, the bureau said. In Taichung City, a household’s garbage treatment fees are calculated based on its monthly water bill. The bureau said the garbage treatment fee for households with running water would be raised by NT$0.9 per cubic meter of water used, while the fee for households without running water would increase by NT$13.5 per month.
■ EDUCATION
US seeks Chinese teachers
The US College Board will send a representative to recruit Chinese-language teaching personnel in Taiwan next month as part of an educational agreement between the two countries, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday. Recruited teachers will teach Chinese language and culture under the Advanced Placement Program during the 2009-2010 academic year. The program, run by the College Board, offers college-level courses at high schools across the US and Canada. The representative will recruit three to seven Taiwanese teachers with college degrees and teaching licenses who can speak fluent English and who have experience teaching Chinese as a second language, the statement said. They will receive annual salaries ranging from US$30,000 to US$60,000, with Taiwan’s Ministry of Education subsidizing their travel fees, it said. More information and application forms are available on the ministry’s Web site. Enrollment ends on June 27.
■ CULTURE
Puppet troupe to play in US
A troupe from the renowned Liao Wen-ho Puppet Theater (廖文和布袋戲團) is scheduled to perform in two US cities later this month. Tsai Chung-li (蔡仲禮), director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’s press division, said the troupe would perform three shows at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington on Saturday and Sunday next week and two shows at the Open Stage in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on June 24. The troupe will perform the Chinese classic Journey to the West as well as its adaptation of The Master Swordsman. The Liao Wen-ho Puppet Theater, established in 1976, combines traditional and modern artistic styles in its performances, which feature multimedia and sound and light effects.
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
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner