■CRIME
US court to try Taiwanese
A Taiwanese man has been extradited from Hong Kong to New York to face charges of smuggling military equipment from the US to Taiwan, including infrared laser aiming devices for rifles and a fighter pilot helmet. Peng Yen-ching (彭彥清) was arrested in Hong Kong in December. He could face more than 20 years in prison if convicted. He made a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Monday. A defense lawyer did not return a telephone message seeking comment. A New York man has pleaded guilty to smuggling charges in the case and has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
■OLYMPICS
Mayor visits medalist
Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) paid a visit yesterday to the nation’s first medalist in the Beijing Olympic Games — Chen Wei-ling (陳葦綾), who won a bronze medal in the women’s 48kg-class weightlifting competition. Her performance marked a significant improvement over her 11th place finish in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Hsu met Chen at her home and presented her with a red envelope containing a cash award of NT$20,000, plus Koji pottery artwork. He said the city government would present her with a citizen of honor award in recognition of her achievement. Chen will be the 13th resident of Tainan to receive such an award. After winning the bronze, Chen also received news that National Taiwan Sport University would hire her as an instructor.
■TOURISM
Penghu to discuss casinos
A total of 38 forums will be held around Penghu County this fall to gather the opinions of locals on the development of casinos. The forums, scheduled to be held between next Tuesday and Sept. 22 at various locations around Penghu, including the rural islets of Jibei (吉貝), Hujing (虎井) and Niaoyu (鳥嶼), are targeted at reaching a consensus of all Penghu residents on casino development in their hometown, officials from the Penghu County Tourism Bureau said. Eight academics from National Penghu University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology are expected to join county officials and representatives of Penghu-based travel agencies at the forums to inform Penghu residents of the advantages and disadvantages of developing tourist casino hotels in Penghu. The forums came after Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) announced at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that decriminalizing gambling in offshore areas of the country would be one of the administration’s goals.
■LABOR
Direct hire pact inked
Taiwan and the Philippines have signed guidelines for a direct employment program, Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良), the director of the Council of Labor Affairs’ Foreign Workers’ Administration said yesterday. Tsai said the nation’s representative to the Philippines, Donald Lee (李傳通), and his Philippine counterpart, Antonio Basilio, inked the agreement in Cebu late last month. Under the guidelines, direct employment will be expanded to cover not only caregivers, but also foreign workers in the manufacturing and construction industries, Tsai said, adding that application procedures would be simplified. The countries will also collaborate to reduce the number of repatriated and runaway workers, Tsai said, adding that as of the end of last month, 2,700 Filipino workers were reported missing. About 85,000 Filipinos, out of a total 358,000 foreign workers, are employed in Taiwan, the Ministry of the Interior said.
■DIPLOMACY
Feng assigned to Japan
Former ambassador to the Dominican Republic John Feng (馮寄台) will be the nation’s new representative to Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said last night. MOFA said that Feng was familiar with Japan as he attended elementary and high school there as his father was also a diplomat. He later attended graduate school at Harvard University and went on to become one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) most-trusted diplomats. Feng’s appointment to Japan reflects the fact that Ma values the relationship between Taiwan and Japan, the ministry said.
■DIPLOMACY
SEF chairman to visit Japan
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) is scheduled to travel to Japan on Monday to give a series of speeches on the government’s cross-strait policy and the prospect for relations between Taiwan and Japan. Chiang will make the visit at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an attempt to allay Tokyo’s concern over the effects of warming relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as a result of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies toward China, informed ministry sources said.
■TOURISM
TRA launches cruise trains
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is working to launch regular runs of “cruise liner-style” trains next month on three rail lines that pass through scenic areas of Taiwan, the TRA deputy director-general said yesterday. Chang Ying-huei (張應輝) said the TRA’s first “cruise train” attracted a full train of passengers for a one-day sightseeing tour on the Hualien-Taitung Line on Aug. 11. Encouraged by the popularity, the TRA plans to open one cruise train everyday from Monday to Thursday.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
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