ENTERTAINMENT
Netflix to increase fees
Netflix on Friday said that its subscription fees in Taiwan are to increase by 7 to 18 percent, effective immediately. Basic plans are to rise from NT$270 to NT$290 per month, standard plans from NT$330 to NT$380 and premium plans from NT$390 to NT$460, Netflix said. Netflix subscribers would be notified of the fee hike one month before they need to pay the new rate and new subscribers would be charged the new cost upon subscribing. Netflix said their “plans and prices may change” as they “add more TV shows and movies, and introduce new product features.” It said it would continue investing in new programs and movies to prove the new subscription cost is worth it. Price adjustments in Taiwan would not affect pricing in other places, Netflix said, adding that it has different pricing strategies for each country and region.
CRIME
Smuggling suspects indicted
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted 18 people suspected of smuggling 891.86kg of ketamine into Taiwan. They were charged with contravening the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) and the Smuggling Penalty Act (懲治走私條例), the prosecutors’ office said. The office said it had established a task force to investigate and monitor people and locations after receiving tip-offs about a plan to smuggle drugs through the northern coast. On July 8, the task force found a truck carrying 35 sacks of ketamine, a category 3 narcotic, in New Taipei City. The driver, people conducting the transport and porters were arrested at the scene, and ketamine of 83.9 percent purity was seized, it said, adding that the task force tracked down the suspected leader of the smuggling operation, a man surnamed Tsao (曹).
LEISURE
Silks Place Taroko to close temporarily
The Silks Place Taroko, the only five-star hotel at Taroko National Park in Hualien County, is temporarily closing its doors until Jan. 15 next year to sort out water and power supply issues caused by Typhoon Kong-rey, the hotel said on Friday. The damage made it difficult to maintain normal day-to-day operations, as the property is cut off from its main water supply, while its electricity supply remains unreliable given that work to fix the power grid in the mountainous area continues, it said. The typhoon was another blow to the hotel, which had been through several natural disasters this year, including an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale off the coast of Hualien on April 3, a series of aftershocks and typhoons in recent months. The hotel closed after the earthquake in April and reopened on Oct. 3. It said that due to the closure, those with vouchers from last year can use them until June 30 next year, while the expiry date for this year’s vouchers is Sept. 30 next year.
SEISMOLOGY
Chiayi hit by 4.4 quake
An earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale struck Chiayi County in southern Taiwan at 7:42pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was 19.8km east-southeast of Chiayi County Hall, in Zhongpu Township (中埔鄉), at a depth of 5km, CWA data showed. The quake’s intensity was highest in Chiayi City, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in other parts of Chiayi County and in neighboring Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries following the quake.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
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