■TRANSPORTATION
Flights to resume: official
The nation’s second-largest international air carrier, EVA Airways, is scheduled to resume Taipei-Paris passenger flights from January in view of lower oil prices, a corporate source said yesterday. From Jan. 21, EVA will offer three weekly passenger flights, on Monday, Friday and Sunday, departing from Taipei for Paris, while the returning flights will depart from Paris for Taipei every Monday, Thursday and Saturday, the EVA official said. EVA suspended its passenger flight operations on the Taipei-Paris route last November after deficits caused by soaring oil prices. In addition to higher fuel prices, expensive costs for flying over Russian airspace also led the carrier to call a halt to the Taipei-Paris route, the official said. EVA will be using new Boeing 777-300ERs on the route, which will save up to 20 percent of the fuel consumed by the Boeing 747-400s that were used on the route prior to last November, the official said.
■ CRIME
Police take pity on thief
Police served a lonely man cake and sang happy birthday after arresting him for stealing a goose to celebrate on his own, an officer in charge said yesterday. Police in Pingtung’s Neipu Township (內埔) treated the 49-year-old suspect, surnamed Lee, on Thursday after they caught him making off with the bird from a betel nut plantation, said Hsiao Chi-liang (蕭吉良), second in command at the local police station. “It was his birthday and he stole it to celebrate, so we bought him a cake,” Hsiao said. “He was very surprised.” Officers took pity on Lee because he was poor, single and living in a shabby home, Hsiao said. Nevertheless, police have sent Lee’s case to the prosecutor’s office.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Protest targets expressway
Environmentalists yesterday protested in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), urging the government to take measures to halt the construction of the proposed Tanbei Expressway (淡北快速道路) in Taipei County. The expressway has generated considerable controversy for its potential damage to mangrove habitats near Tamsui Township (淡水) since it was proposed by the county government. Yesterday environmentalists said that not only had the county intentionally designed the blueprint of the expressway to take advantage of a loophole in environmental impact assessment regulations, it had also used a survey polling only 1,121 people about the road to say that the project had a 60 percent support rate. The groups said they had more than 13,000 signatures that opposed the expressway.
■ CRIME
Cops nab coin counterfeiter
A makeshift factory that specialized in counterfeiting NT$50 coins over the past 10 years has been discovered in Kaohsiung County, and its owner arrested, police announced on Thursday. The 61-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lin, told police he had been producing the fake NT$50 coins for a decade, injecting more that 500,000 fake coins, with a total face value of over NT$20 million, into the local market. Acting on a tip-off, a law enforcement team raided the factory in Luchu Township (路竹) on Wednesday and seized its owner and a large number of finished and unfinished fake coins and equipment. A Criminal Investigation Bureau spokesman said Lin sold the fake coins to accomplices who then laundered the money through retail market channels, night markets, convenience stores and automatic vending machines.
A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines could develop into a tropical storm as soon as today and bring rainfall as it approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, while issuing heat warnings for 14 cities and counties. Weather model simulations show that there are still considerable differences in the path that the tropical depression is projected to take. It might pass through the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea or turn northeast and move toward the sea south of Japan, CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said, adding that the uncertainty of its movement is still high,
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
Discounted 72-hour Taipei Metro passes are to be offered to China Airlines passengers until Feb. 28 next year, the airline announced today. China Airlines passengers may present their boarding pass for a discount of up to 34 percent when buying a Taipei Metro 72-hour unlimited travel pass. The offer is available to international travelers on international flights bound for Taipei. Within seven days of arrival, travelers can present their boarding pass, passport and proof of flight payment at an EZfly counter in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport or Taoyuan MRT Taipei Main Station to obtain the discounted passes, the airline said. One 72-hour pass
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