■ Politics
KMT primary heats up
Heating up competition within the pan-blue camp for Taipei County commissioner, former minister of justice Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪) registered yesterday to enter the party's preliminaries for the seat. Liao said that he had restored his party membership a month ago, and will have the necessary 5,000 signatures needed to qualify for the preliminaries. There are five other competitors: KMT legislators Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) and Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋); Wang Lin-huei (王玲惠), head of the Taipei County Federation of Chinese Business Women, and Sanchung Mayor Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍). Chou created a scandal last week when he left the People First Party and registered with the KMT in order to enter the race.
■ Crime
Five men jailed in Vietnam
Five Taiwanese men were given jail terms ranging from two to nine years for using fake travelers checks in Vietnam. Lee Yao-yu, Wong Chi-feng, Chang Yi-yu, Liu Che-an and Su Wen-hsien used 21 fake checks to buy around US$95,000 worth of gold jewelry, diamonds and laptops last July, said Bui Kim Dung, an official of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. "Lee and Wong were both sentenced to nine years in jail for leading the fraud," Dung said. "Chang and Liu were given jail terms of eight years, while Su Wen-hsien got two years." The counterfeit checks were made in Taiwan and the five men were part of a gang who had been passing off fake checks there. The men were arrested after they had been using the fake checks for several days.
■ Diplomacy
Greater outreach urged
Taiwan should develop the ability to establish an agenda at major events such as the APEC forum to boost its influence, Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said yesterday. Wu made the remarks while attending an APEC operations seminar sponsored by the Taiwan APEC Study Center. Wu noted that APEC and the WTO are two international organizations that Taiwan participates in, and that the APEC leaders' meeting is the only venue where its officials can get together with world leaders and officials. He said that no publicity drive could be more effective to demonstrate the nation's sovereignty than Taiwanese leaders mingling with other leaders. But he said that the agenda of the APEC meeting has been affected by the changing international political and economic situation, and the government has to keep abreast of the latest developments to work out how Taiwan can increase its presence.
■ Architecture
Urban planners visit Stuttgart
A delegation headed by Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) visited Stuttgart on Sunday to inspect the city's urban planning and greening project. Stuttgart, which used to be an overcrowded, overdeveloped industrial city, has undergone a major transformation in recent years under a municipal government "greening" plan to make the city into a European commercial and industrial center with a high-quality living environment to attract people to live, work and invest. Yang praised the city for its greening efforts, saying during the one-day visit that Kaohsiung County can learn from it in planning a university town in Yenchao Township and an urban park at the site of the former Weiwu military barracks.
■ Crime
Bounty on forgers raised
The reward for information leading to the arrest or indictment of forgers has been raised to NT$500,000 from NT$200,000, according to the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The office urged people to use a toll-free hotline (080-001-6597) to report forgers. An official said that Web sites are replacing shops as the most popular places for selling forged products.
■ Crime
Four nabbed for forgery
Four men were arrested yesterday for producing fake Microsoft certificates of authenticity. Computers with the fake stickers were first found in Australia last July, and Australian police tracked the maker down to this country. Acting on a tip-off from Australian officials, Taipei police raided a workshop in Sungshan, Taipei City, yesterday. Four people were arrested along with 33 sheets of a wide variety of fake certificates for Windows 98, Windows XP and other software.
■ Diplomacy
Troupe performs overseas
The Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera troupe is scheduled to perform in Bangkok this weekend to celebrate the 55th anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit's marriage and the 50th birthday of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorne. At the invitation of the Thai government, the opera troupe, founded in 1929, will present its most popular play, The Living Buddha Chikung. The award-winning play, which premiered in 1983, features Buddhist truths, principles and practices. It is perfect for the play to be performed in a Buddhist country, the head of the troupe, Chen Sheng-fu (陳勝福), said yesterday.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
PEAK MONTHS: Data showed that on average 25 to 27 typhoons formed in the Pacific and South China seas annually, with about four forming per month in July and October One of three tropical depressions in the Pacific strengthened into a typhoon yesterday afternoon, while two others are expected to become typhoons by today, Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lee Ming-hsiang (李名翔) said yesterday. The outer circulation of Tropical Depression No. 20, now Typhoon Mitag, has brought light rain to Hualien, Taitung and areas in the south, Lee said, adding that as of 2pm yesterday, Mitag was moving west-northwest at 16kph, but is not expected to directly affect Taiwan. It was possible that Tropical Depression No. 21 would become a typhoon as soon as last night, he said. It was moving in a
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
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