CRIME
Taiwanese bust abroad
Philippine police arrested two Taiwanese men and a Chinese yesterday in a sting operation that netted illegal drugs worth more than US$2 million, officials said. The three were caught selling more than 2kg of the banned stimulant crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, more commonly known as “ice” or “shabu,” to an undercover agent, police said. Agents also found drugs in the suspects’ vehicle. “We believe they are selling two kinds of ‘shabu,’ one priced lower and one with a higher price imported from another country,” task force head Superintendent Ismael Fajardo said on national radio. He said the bogus transaction took place in the car park of a hospital and agents pounced on the trio after marked money changed hands. The Philippines has been stepping up its fight against drug traffickers after concerns that the archipelago country’s vast shoreline made it a favorite shipment point for illegal drugs.
CULTURE
‘Green reading’ at book fair
The 2012 Taipei International Book Exhibition is scheduled to start on Wednesday at the Taipei World Trade Center, the organizers said yesterday. The book fair, which will run through Feb. 6, has a special feature themed on “green reading,” in which the evolution of reading styles will be presented. The organizers have also invited several renowned authors from around the world to the event this year, including Brandon Sanderson, author of the New York Times bestselling fantasy trilogy Mistborn, and Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo, whose novels have sold more than 8.5 million copies worldwide. The event will include a variety of forums on international publishing, digital reading and the development of digital content applications, book designs and children’s books.
SOCIETY
Inauguration coins minted
The central bank is set to issue commemorative gold and silver coins to celebrate the inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), bank officials said yesterday. In 2008, a record number of commemorative coins were issued to mark the presidential inauguration, with 50,000 gold and 100,000 silver coins minted. The gold coins cost NT$32,000 each and the silver ones were sold at NT$1,500 each. The officials did not disclose either the issue date or the number of coins to be minted.
FOOD
Pork knuckles impress
Two German chefs in South Africa said they have improved their culinary skills after attending a pork knuckle festival held in Taiwan in September last year, a Pretoria-based newspaper reported on Friday. According to the Pretoria News, the two chefs, surnamed Kluge and Marika, represented South Africa in a pork knuckle cooking contest in last year’s World Pork Knuckle Festival in Pingtung. The chefs presented a German-style pork knuckle dish marinaded with South African spices that drew attention during the competition. Kluge said that he was impressed by Taiwan’s friendly and polite people during his visit and the competition was unforgettable. He added that pork knuckles symbolize good luck among Taiwanese as they believe that eating pork knuckles can help sweep away bad luck. The World Pork Knuckle Festival has been held annually in Pingtung County to promote Taiwanese delicacies. This year the festival is scheduled to be held in the middle of September.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods