CRIME
Drugs seized at airport
A large shipment of ketamine was seized at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Saturday, the largest amount ever confiscated from an air shipment, the Aviation Police Office said yesterday. The drugs, disguised as desiccants, were found hidden in women’s shoes in four batches of cargo that arrived from Hong Kong early on Saturday, the police said. The 225kg of ketamine had a street value of NT$500 million (US$16.72 million), according to police. The recipient of the cargo, a man surnamed Huang (黃), was arrested later on Saturday and handed over to prosecutors yesterday for questioning, the aviation police said. Authorities have been cracking down on ketamine trafficking amid concern at the high rate of drug abuse among students and the health dangers it poses. Under the nation’s antidrug laws, manufacturing, transporting and dealing ketamine is punishable by a minimum of five years in prison.
GOVERNMENT
License agreement signed
Taiwan and Canada’s Prince Edward Island have signed an agreement in which each side will recognize driver’s licenses issued by the other. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto said the agreement was signed on Dec. 13. From that day, people who have held Taiwanese driver’s licenses for sedans, trucks, buses or articulated vehicles for at least two years and who have residency on Prince Edward Island can apply for the Canadian province’s Class Five driver’s license without taking an examination. People who have held Class 1 to Class 5 licenses issued by Prince Edward Island for more than two years and who have held Taiwanese residency for at least one year can apply for a Taiwanese B-category driver’s license for a sedan within one year of entering the nation, according to the agreement. Those who qualify can submit an application to the Directorate-General of Highways or Access PEI, the one-stop location where provincial government services are provided on Prince Edward Island.
ENTERTAINMENT
Berlin to show local films
Three Taiwanese films, including one by this year’s winner of best director at the Golden Horse awards, Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), are scheduled to be shown at the Panorama program of the annual Berlin International Film Festival. Among the first 19 films chosen so far are Xi You (西遊) by Tsai, Bai Mi Zha Dan Ke (白米炸彈客) by Cho Li (卓立) and Bing Du (冰毒) by Midi Z (趙德胤). The three showings at the festival, which starts on Feb. 7, will be the world premieres for each film. Fifty fiction and documentary films will also be chosen for the Panorama program. The Panorama selection’s target audience includes parties interested in buying the rights to the films.
SOCIETY
Barbie visits Taoyuan
A life-size Barbie went on display for the first time on Saturday in Taoyuan County. The 175cm-tall doll will be on display at the TaiMall shopping center until Feb. 16 to show the fashion icon from a different perspective, mall general-manager Miao Yen-mei (苗延梅) said. The Barbie is the largest in the world and is on display for the first time ever, Miao said. The doll, dressed in a white gown, is being displayed in a section of the mall that simulates a pink cruise ship. As part of the show, visitors will be allowed to take pictures with the Barbie and to dress like her, Miao said. The mall has invested more than NT$5 million (US$167,000) in the exhibition.
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