■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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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