■ CRIME
Police smash extortion ring
Police have nabbed the alleged ringleader of a group of Philippine officials and naval officers who have been extorting money from seized Taiwanese fishing trawlers, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) reported yesterday. Hsu Chih-yi (許志宜), a Taiwanese, was arrested upon arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Thursday. In April last year, several tuna boats were intercepted by two Philippine warships in the waters between Taiwan and the Philippines. Their captains were taken into custody and accused of trespassing in Philippine waters. The captains paid thousands of dollars to have their vessels released. Through telephone taps, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation learned that Hsu and several Philippine officials and navy officers had masterminded the seizure of the ships. Hsu, who lives in southern Taiwan, used his connections to a Philippine naval officer to "assist" the captains by telling them how to deposit cash to an account in the Philippines to secure the release of their boats.
■ TRANSPORTATION
THSRC adds more trains
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) increased the number of southbound and northbound daily train runs yesterday from 31 to 37. Officials also said that ticket sales would be extended by a half-hour, until 10:30pm, to accommodate passengers on the last train of the day, while ticket vending machines at the Taipei station would remain open until 11pm. This is the third increase in train runs in less than four months.
■ EDUCATION
System to add another year
Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) said yesterday that the ministry was planning to extend the nine-year compulsory education system by one year to include kindergarten. Speaking during a visit to Tung Ho Elementary School, Tu said that with myriad issues needing to be tackled before the compulsory education system is formally extended, the ministry has decided that the first step will be to offer subsidies to low-income families to help them cover the costs of sending their children to kindergarten. Providing a year of free kindergarten is expected to cost the government around NT$25 billion (US$762 million) per year, Tu said. He said more qualified teachers will have to be recruited and the quality of private kindergartens upgraded as part of the ministry's reform plans. The subsidy program may be implemented as early as this September, he said.
■ SCIENCE
Cloned pigs give birth
Three female cloned pigs raised at the Animal Technology Institute Taiwan (ATIT) in Miaoli have given birth to 19 piglets in recent months, indicating a breakthrough in cloning technology, institute researchers reported on Thursday. The researchers cloned five "spotty mini pigs" from a female Lanyu small-ear pig last year, they said. Three of the five became pregnant early this year through natural insemination and one gave birth to six piglets in late May, while the others delivered six and seven youngsters earlier this month. Six of the piglets died because of insufficient milk, but the rest are doing well. The researchers said ATIT produced its first generation of cloned pigs in 2002, although those pigs could not reproduce. The fact that some of the second-generation clones have given birth to piglets with no genetic abnormalities was evidence of the improvement in the institute's cloning technology, the researchers said.
People should continue to cheer for Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) at the Olympics Games in Paris today, despite British writer J.K. Rowling’s remarks against her, the Sports Administration said in a statement on Wednesday. Rowling recently shared on X a story from the Guardian about Lin and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif being cleared to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris this year despite having failed gender eligibility tests at the International Boxing Association Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi last year. “What will it take to end this insanity? A female boxer left with life-altering injuries? A female boxer
SATELLITE MISSION: Today’s mission is to take off from the Xichang Launch Center and is pathed over Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the defense ministry said China has a rocket launch scheduled for today, with the path likely to cross Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The launch would be among at least a dozen Chinese satellite missions in the past 18 months that have passed over the zone or Taiwan, although none threatened national security as they had left the atmosphere by that stage in their flight. The ministry first started making details of such launches public this year. Today’s mission is to take off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China’s Sichuan Province, the ministry said, citing an official announcement
DISCRIMINATORY: Airlines’ uniform requirements contravene the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a watchdog said Airline companies’ appearance requirements obliging female flight attendants to wear pencil skirts and high heels are discriminatory, and they should be able to have the option to wear pants, the National Human Rights Commission said in a report yesterday. Completing a year-long probe, commission members said the uniform requirements of Taiwan’s air carriers contravened the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). To fight gender-based discrimination, government agencies should issue guidelines and require airlines to make changes so that female flight attendants have the option to wear pants, the report said. The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union in
SHOW OF SOLIDARITY: The event, which is the first IPAC summit held in a non-member country, demonstrates that the world supports Taiwan, a DPP lawmaker said Cross-strait issues would be among the top items on the agenda in the annual summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) to be held in Taipei tomorrow, which would also include a “Taiwan session,” during which President William Lai (賴清德) and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) are to deliver speeches. This would be the first IPAC summit held in Taiwan, and is also the first IPAC summit to be held in a non-member nation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said, adding that this demonstrates that the world supports Taiwan. Cross-strait stability is one of the