POLITICS
Belgian delegation arrives
A group of eight Belgian lawmakers has arrived in Taiwan for a six-day trip during which they are to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and discuss future cooperation on issues including human rights and supply chain resilience, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The delegation is led by Els Van Hoof of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party, who chairs the Chamber of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and the Belgium-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group. Van Hoof is also a cochair of the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. The delegation also includes Georges Dallemagne, who is a member of the Belgian parliament’s Chamber of Representatives, the ministry said in a press release. The delegates are also to meet with private enterprises and research institutes to discuss future collaboration on issues including gender equality, human rights, environmental protection and supply chain resilience, it added. Both Van Hoof and Dallemagne are known for their Taiwan-friendly stance, the ministry said. In July 2020, they initiated a motion that urged the Belgian government to support Taiwan’s participation in international bodies.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
CRIME
Boy detained after threat
An 18-year-old suspect has been detained for questioning after he allegedly left a message threatening to commit a “massacre” at the Taipei Municipal Heping High School, the Taipei Police Department said on Saturday. The suspect is a high-school student who lives in Taipei with his parents, the department said, adding he was arrested at his home in the morning. He was released in the custody of his parents after being questioned by police and prosecutors. The case is now in the hands of prosecutors, who are investigating the teenager for potentially violating the Criminal Code by engaging in public intimidation. The threatening message was left in an Instagram account linked to the Taipei high school last week. Its author warned students there not to show up for class today, as there would be a massacre near the school’s entrance at noon. The alarming message has since been removed, but it still caused concern and caught the attention of local authorities. On Saturday, police said the student was believed to have threatened the school out of anxiety.
ARTS
Filmmaker wins award
Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲) has won the Directors Guild of Japan Award for her documentary Parallel World (平行世界) at the biennial Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF). The award ceremony was held on Wednesday in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, a National Taipei University of Education news release said on Saturday. Hsiao, who teaches at the university’s Department of Arts and Design, is also known for Somewhere Over the Cloud (雲的那端), a documentary that won a special mention in the New Asian Currents Awards category at the YIDFF in 2007. In her acceptance speech, Hsiao said she was happy that her dream of winning another award at the festival had finally come to fruition. Parallel World, which took 12 years to make, chronicles the special bond between Hsiao and her daughter, Elodie, who has Asperger’s syndrome. The film shows how Hsiao accompanies her daughter in the process of self-seeking, self-recognition and finding a way out. The YIDFF was first held in 1989 and recognizes achievements in documentary filmmaking, as well as aiming to promote and popularize the genre. The event this year was held from Oct. 5 to Thursday last week.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
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