TRANSPORTATION
Airport baggage system halts
A global system malfunction halted automated baggage handling at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for about an hour yesterday, causing delays to three flights. Taoyuan International Airport Corp in a news release said the disruption began at 12:30pm after the SITA-operated baggage source message (BSM) system used at its terminals experienced a worldwide outage. The company said it immediately activated its emergency response mechanism, and coordinated with airlines and check-in counters to reroute baggage handling and manually sort baggage to minimize disruption. Following emergency repairs by SITA, the BSM system at the airport resumed normal operations at 1:15pm.
TRADE
Tainan fruit back in Japan
Japanese supermarket Queen’s Isetan is once again to sell top-grade mangoes from Tainan next month, the Tainan City Government said. The announcement came after the retailer’s president, Ryuichi Amemiya, met with Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) on Wednesday to discuss plans to expand imports of the city’s agricultural products to Japan. Huang said red dragon fruit and Irwin mangoes exported to Japan last year were well received, and expressed hope that more agricultural goods from Tainan would be added to the shelves at Queen’s Isetan supermarkets. Amemiya said that many agricultural goods from Tainan have caught the attention of the company, which plans to carry top-grade mangoes from Tainan again on a trial basis next month as a step toward deeper cooperation. He welcomed further recommendations of quality products from Tainan.
TRAFFIC
Vehicles outnumber people
The number of registered motor vehicles — including motorcycles, trucks, coaches and specially built vehicles — had exceeded 23.357 million in Taiwan by the end of last month, surpassing the total population, government statistics showed. There were 23,357,381 registered motor vehicles across Taiwan, marking an increase of 5,200 from a month earlier, Highway Bureau statistics showed. Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of the Interior indicated that at the end of last month, Taiwan had a population of 23,355,470, a year-on-year decline of 58,138. The number of vehicles officially surpassed the total population of Taiwan by 1,911. Citing analysis from the Highway Bureau, the Chinese-language China Times attributed the phenomenon to the unrestricted number of motor vehicles that individuals, businesses, or government agencies can register.
CRIME
Woman indicted over drugs
A Canadian woman allegedly found to have 35.11kg of ketamine in her luggage at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has been indicted on drug smuggling charges. The drugs were discovered hidden in the 33-year-old suspect’s checked luggage during a routine X-ray screening on April 9, Aviation Police Bureau officer Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧) said last week. Initial investigations indicated that a trafficking ring had instructed the woman to travel first to Vienna, then smuggle the drugs into Taiwan under the pretense of tourism, Chang said. The trafficking ring gave the woman C$1,000 (US$728) in cash, in addition to paying for her airfare and accommodation, he added. The woman was indicted under the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) last month and faces a minimum seven-year prison sentence if convicted of transporting a Category 3 narcotic.
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
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.
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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