TOURISM
Basketball fundraiser set
Entertainers from Taiwan and South Korea are scheduled to take part in a charity baseball game in Greater Taichung on Sunday, as part of a collaborative effort with the Tourism Bureau to promote travel through sports exchanges. The Taiwanese team is to be led by comedian Peng Chia-chia (澎恰恰). The money raised from the free game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium is to be donated to charities for autistic children, the bureau said. The bureau is also planning to organize a “Taiwan Day” next month, in collaboration with the US NBA Houston Rockets basketball team, as part of the efforts to give Taiwan greater visibility. Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin (林書豪), the first NBA player of Taiwanese descent, is likely to be a major attraction, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Children’s film fest to open
The Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival, which is set to start in Taipei on March 27, is this year aimed at inspiring children to think more openly and creatively. The biennial festival, to run until April 6 at the Xinyi Vieshow Cinemas, will feature more than 100 films from 32 countries, according to Taiwan Public Television Service (PTS), the festival’s organizer. The films’ main themes range from friendship, sibling relationships and family struggles, to adventure, science and life and death. The theme of this year’s festival — “Diversified Thinking and Boundless Creativity” — was chosen to challenge and inspire youngsters to think about things from different perspectives and beyond boundaries, PTS said.
CRIME
Family may sue prosecutors
The family of a man who reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself with shoelaces in a detention room of the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it is considering filing suit against personnel for neglecting their duties to guard him. District prosecutors’ office spokesman Kuo Chih-ming (郭志明) said the 35-year-old man, surnamed Lo (羅), was arrested with three others on suspicion of trading drugs and carrying pistols. They were brought to the office at 5pm on Friday, Kuo said, adding that to prevent them from colluding on their statements, police kept them in four separate rooms. The spokesman said police had also taken the men’s belts. However, at 7:10pm, police found Lo dead after he had allegedly hanged himself with shoelaces. Kuo said the office has apologized to Lo’s family and that a criminal investigation has been launched.
AGRICULTURE
Lettuce exports set to rise
Farmers are likely to export more lettuce this year compared with last year after securing more orders through contract farming, according to the Council of Agriculture. The nation’s farmers grow the vegetable on about 600 hectares of land — in which the crops are sold to designated buyers at fixed prices, the council’s Agriculture and Food Agency said. Exports of lettuce have increased substantially in the past four years, steadily rising from 2,904 tonnes in 2009 to 4,012 tonnes in 2010, 4,565 tonnes in 2011, 8,311 tonnes in 2012 and 10,384 tonnes last year. Lettuce exports were worth NT$283 million (US$9.36 million) last year, more than tripling the NT$90 million earned in 2009, data showed. Japan is Taiwan’s largest export destination for lettuce, accounting for 80 percent of total lettuce exports.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard