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.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
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