■ More sniffer dogs coming
Directorate General of Customs Chien Liang-chi (簡良機) said on Friday the number of sniffer dogs used by customs could increase to 80 within five to six years. Of the six sniffer dogs on active duty, Chien said two were with the Kaohsiung Customs Office, while the others were at the Taipei office. Chien praised the dogs' excellent performance in helping crack down on drug smuggling at airports. Kaohsiung Customs Office statistics showed that heroin, ketamine and amphetamine seized by customs officials accounted for 7.2 percent of all smuggled cargo seized during the first nine months of this year, making narcotics the third-largest smuggled items after tobacco/alcohol and Chinese agricultural products. The office attributes this to increasing demand for drugs, with the population of addicts rising for several years, officials said.
■ EVENTS
F4 holds tourism concert
A performance by local pop group F4 for approximately 5,000 fans from Japan and South Korea will be held at National Taiwan University's main stadium today, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday. Tourism officials said the fans would bring in at least NT$100 million (US$3 million) in revenue. The officials said the fans have come mostly on package tours, paying on average NT$20,000 apiece. In addition to the performance, fans will be taken to various scenic spots around the country. The bureau has also prepared limited edition notebooks and passport holders featuring the band members, as well as manuals on backpacking in Taiwan. Today's F4 performance will be the second sponsored by the Tourism Bureau, following on the success of the first one in April, which attracted 4,000 Japanese and 1,000 South Korean fans.
■ EVENTS
Whiz kids in Germany
Ten Taiwanese inventions will enter the Nuremberg International Invention Exhibition in Germany from Wednesday to Nov. 4. A 13-member Taiwanese delegation headed by inventor Teng Hung-chi (鄧鴻吉) -- dubbed "Taiwan's Edison" -- will depart for Germany on Tuesday. Teng expressed his gratitude to the central Taiwan office of the Ministry of Education for offering subsidies to the 13 junior high, senior high and college students for their overseas expenditures, including lodging, meals and airfare. All 13 students are expected to clinch medals for their creativity during competitions held alongside the exhibition, Teng said.
■ POLITICS
Ma promises MRT to Keelung
During a stopover in Keelung on his campaign trail yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that if elected, he would expand the Neihu MRT line all the way to the harbor city. He also vowed to boost Keelung's economy by opening up direct links with China and open up tourism to Chinese tourists. "As your next president, I will increase the business opportunities at Keelung Harbor. I will also strengthen local tourism. My victory will be Keelung's prosperity," Ma said to a group of supporters. In a meeting with the media, Ma said that in the next five to 10 years, Keelung Harbor would play a vital role as a cargo transportation hub connecting both sides of the strait. The harbor should also play a strong role in attracting Chinese tourists, he said. Ma said expanding the Neihu MRT line to Keelung would connect the city to the science park chain that includes the Nangang Science Park and the Neihu Science Park.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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