■ SOCIETY
Refugees obtain residency
Seventy-eight Tibetan refugees who had overstayed their visas have been granted resident status in Taiwan, the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission said yesterday. Of the total, 40 have received work permits, it said. The commission is still reviewing the applications of the rest, adding that it would provide them with services such as job-matching, emergency aid, medical care and counseling. Amendments to the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) passed in January provide that stateless people from India and Nepal who entered Taiwan on fake passports between May 21, 1999, and Dec. 31, 2007, and Tibetan refugees who have overstayed their time in Taiwan are eligible to apply for residency certificates. The law was amended after more than 100 Tibetan refugees in Taiwan staged a sit-in protest in December asking the government to grant them asylum.
■ CULTURE
Wu mulls candidates: Su
Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday declined to answer whether Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had appointed Taipei City Government Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Director-General Emile Sheng (盛治仁) as minister of cultural affairs after the incumbent, Huang Pi-twan (黃碧端), tendered her resignation last month. Su said Wu had been talking to possible candidates. “Anyone who can serve the cultural sector and effectively integrate opinions within the sector is a suitable candidate,” Su said. At a separate setting, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) voiced his support for Sheng, saying that Sheng’s experience in organizing the Deaflympics in September should prepare him for the new task in the ministry. “Sheng has good connections with people in cultural and arts circles after organizing the Deaflympics, and I believe he will do well in the ministry,” Hau said.
■ CRIME
Men nabbed over drugs
Aviation police inspectors arrested two men for attempting to smuggle in 6kg of the drug ketamine at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday. Police said the suspects — both Taiwanese nationals — disguised the drug as an insulating agent. They tried to ship the drug into Taiwan from Malaysia as part of a consignment of living coral fish. The two men have been taken to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors' Office for further questioning, police said. Under Taiwan's laws, individuals who produce, transport and sell “category three” banned drugs like ketamine are subject to a jail sentence of at least five years and a maximum fine of NT$5 million (US$153,600).
■ CULTURE
Master puppets lost in fire
A region that takes pride in its puppetry lost between 400 and 500 of its best pieces to a fire, leaving just one major collection, county officials said yesterday. The fire, which is under investigation, burned most of the large, ornate, one-of-a-kind puppets in a warehouse in Huwei Township (虎尾), Yunlin County, officials said. The blaze spared only a few that had been taken out for a performance. “This is a big part of the county's culture, so we value its survival,” a county government official said. “Each puppet may have had only one or two likenesses, so there's no way to replicate them.” Local media called the fire a “burial” and listed the names of the more famous puppets that were lost in the fire. Officials said the county had planned to promote puppetry via films and a new museum to draw international interest.
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
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
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
FATE UNKNOWN: The owner of the dog could face a fine of up to NT$150,000 and the animal could be euthanized if he cannot show that he can effectively supervise it A pit bull terrier has been confiscated by authorities after it yesterday morning bit a motorcyclist in Taipei, following footage of the same dog in a similar attack going viral online earlier this month. When the owner, surnamed Hsu (徐), stopped at a red light on Daan District’s (大安) Wolong Street at 8am, the dog, named “Lucky,” allegedly rolled down the automatic window of the pickup truck they were riding in, leapt out of the rear passenger window and attacked a motorcyclist behind them, Taipei’s Daan District Police Precinct said. The dog clamped down on the man’s leg and only let go
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