CRIME
Three Taiwanese arrested
Bangkok police say they have arrested three Taiwanese and a Thai after seizing 230kg of heroin before it could be smuggled to Hong Kong. Police Lieutenant General Chaiwat Chotima said investigators seized 678 bars of heroin worth 426 million baht (US$13 million) at a hotel in Bangkok’s outskirts on Thursday before the drugs were delivered to smugglers. Chaiwat said yesterday the Thai suspect was arrested at the hotel, while the three Taiwanese were caught before they boarded a flight to Hong Kong at Suvarnabhumi Airport. He said the four are facing a charge of possessing drugs for sale and will be investigated on drug trafficking charges. Police believe the value of the narcotics would increase five to 20 times when sold abroad.
TOURISM
Airports handle more traffic
The growing number of overseas tourists visiting Taiwan has resulted in a rise in the number of passengers handled by Taiwan’s main airports in the first half of the year, according to Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics. A total of 14.75 million travelers used Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in the first six months of this year, or an average of 82,000 per day, setting a half-year record for the airport. A total of 2.79 million travelers, or an average of 15,000 per day, used Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) in the January-to-June period, the highest number the airport recorded in a half year in nearly seven years. Of Taiwan’s three main international gateways, only Kaohsiung International Airport saw a decline in passenger traffic from a year earlier. The number of passengers it handled fell by 1.6 percent in the first half, primarily because of a decline in traffic on a domestic route to the outlying island of Kinmen.
MUSIC
Salgueiro concert tomorrow
Portuguese singer Teresa Salgueiro will bring the traditional urban folk music of her country to Taiwan, in a one-night-only performance this weekend, organizer Le Pont des Arts Agence Artistique said yesterday. The 44-year-old diva, who starred in Lisbon Story by Wim Wenders in 1994, will perform selections from the movie soundtrack, fado songs and other music at her concert tomorrow, Le Pont des Arts said. Salgueiro, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said at a press briefing in Taipei that she hoped her performance would help give Taiwanese a better understanding of the city of Lisbon. Fado, a musical genre that can be traced back to the early 1800s in Portugal, is characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and is characteristically infused with sentiments of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia. Salgueiro’s concert will be staged at the National Concert Hall in Taipei.
ASTRONOMY
Peak meteor shower viewing
Stargazers have a chance of getting a good look at the Perseid meteor shower next week, one of the most spectacular celestial events this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. The meteor shower, which started in the middle of last month and continues until late this month, will peak between 2:15am and 4:45am on Tuesday, the museum said. Conditions for star-watching should be good after the new moon sets at about 10pm on Monday, the museum added. The Perseid shower has a rate of about 100 meteors per hour from a radiant near the North Star, where the Perseid meteoroids strike the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, the museum said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
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