■ CRIME
Children deported to China
Two Chinese children detained at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Saturday for holding fake Taiwanese identification papers were deported to China yesterday, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. The 16-year-old high school students, a boy and a girl, were caught with bogus passports, ID cards and boarding pass stamps, agency officials said. The officials said the children, who had arrived from Hong Kong, were caught while attempting to transfer to a flight to Guam, with the hope of later traveling to the US. Officials said they suspected that a human-trafficking ring was involved and were investigating the incident.
■ POLITICS
Contribution database opens
A Control Yuan database featuring information on contributions to politicians will open to the public today, staff said. In accordance with the Political Contribution Act (政治獻金法), which took effect in April 2004, the Control Yuan has kept documentation from all elections since then both of donors and how the contributions were spent. The public will be able to examine the records on two computers at the Control Yuan’s financial assets declaration department. The database contains information about individual and corporate donors and the sums of contributions to election hopefuls who opened special accounts to receive political donations.
■ RECREATION
Mayor promises penguins
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) pledged yesterday to open a penguin house — the nation’s largest — late this year or early next year. Construction on the facility, located within the city’s traditional fish market — which is scheduled to be refurbished — is expected to be finished in October at the earliest or early next year, Hu said. The Taichung City Government hopes both the penguin hall and the artificial wharf will become the city’s major tourist attractions. Once the penguin house is completed, it will host a variety of exhibits and research related to the bird, Hu said. Taichung plans to lease king penguins from the Taipei City Zoo, he said. “Taichung’s penguin house will be open before the next Lunar New Year,” he said, adding that within three years, the city’s penguin house hoped to showcase five or six species of penguin.
■ CULTURE
Agency plugs Yushan
The Construction and Planning Administration urged the public yesterday to vote for Yushan (玉山) on a Web site that is holding a contest for a new list of seven wonders of the natural world. The 3,952m Yushan — the nation’s highest peak — is the only site in the country that has been shortlisted in the online vote. A total of 261 natural heritage sites are on the New Seven Wonders Web site shortlist, agency officials said. The group that runs the Web site, the New7Wonders Foundation, will nominate 21 candidates out of 77 selected through a second stage of public voting on the Internet before July 7. Agency officials called on the public to take part in the vote at www.new7wonders.com or at a Web site run by the Yushan National Park Administration in conjunction with the New7Wonders Foundation. The officials said winning the vote for Yushan could help the nation increase its international visibility and attract tourists from abroad.
RSS