TRAVEL
Passport ranked 69th
Taiwanese can enter 100 countries and territories without a visa, putting the nation’s passport 69th on the VisaGuide Passport Index for this month. Taiwan has had the same ranking in the monthly index since January, the VisaGuide.World Web site showed. Singapore topped the latest index, with holders of its passport having visa-free access to 159 countries. The country has been ranked first since March. Japan was 13th in the latest index, the best-performing Asian country after Singapore. Holders of Japanese passports can visit 143 destinations without a visa. Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea was ranked 31st, Hong Kong 46th, Macau 58th and China 117th. Following Singapore, the top 10 was rounded out by Italy, Spain, France, Hungary, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. The index evaluates and ranks the passports of 199 countries and territories. The index uses the Destination Significance Score mechanism as part of its ranking method, the Web site showed. Factors including GDP, as well as indices for “power,” “tourism” and “human development” are taken into account.
CRIME
Fraud suspects arrested
Sixteen people who are alleged members of a fraud ring that impersonated local investment expert Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河) and made profits of more than NT$140 million (US$4.33 million) were arrested on Wednesday, the New Taipei City Police Department said on Friday. Police said that the ring, which had advertised nationwide since last year using the name of Hsieh, chairman of Investment Media, to falsely endorse investment schemes, was raided in a hotel in Taipei. The suspects lured 12 jobseekers with online advertisements and allegedly held them captive in hotel rooms in Taipei and New Taipei City. They demanded their ATM cards and bank account details, police said. The information was used to create proxy accounts to defraud 32 other people, with the “hostages” released only after their accounts were red-flagged by the authorities for money laundering and rendered useless, police said. The case has been transferred to the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office, police said.
EDUCATION
NCKU ranked No. 25
National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) was ranked 25th in the world in the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings released on Wednesday, the highest ranking of listed Taiwanese universities. The impact rankings assess universities around the globe against the UN Sustainable Development Goals. There were 51 Taiwanese universities on the latest list, four more than last year. Four Taiwanese universities were in the top 100: NCKU, sharing 25th with the University of Strathclyde and Michigan State University; National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (50th); National Taiwan University, which shared 55th with Cardiff University; and Tunghai University in 100th. National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, and Taipei Medical University were in the group ranked No. 101 to 200. National Chung Hsing University, National Sun Yat-sen University, National Tsing Hua University and Tamkang University were in the 201-300 group. The top five institutions were Western Sydney University at No. 1, followed by the University of Manchester and the University of Tasmania in a tie for second, Aalborg University in Denmark in fourth and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in fifth.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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