HONG KONG: Hong Kong customs seized nearly four million cigarettes, worth over $1.2m, in a two-week operation aimed at stifling smuggling in the territory, officials said yesterday.
Authorities arrested seven people aged between 23 and 63 in the operation, which started in mid-December.
“Two cross-boundary vehicles conveying illicit cigarettes were seized and five illicit cigarette storage points were smashed,” a government statement released yesterday said.
Taiwan panda charms media
TAIPEI: The first Taiwan-born giant panda cub was unveiled to the media yesterday in a warm up for her highly-anticipated public debut next week.
Yuan Zai agilely climbed up and down for most of her 30-minute media preview inside an exhibition enclosure, as mother Yuan Yuan sat lazily aside munching bamboos.
“Yuan Zai is growing bigger and bigger. She is very robust and is gaining strength. After evaluation she can meet the public in two days,” Taipei Zoo spokesman Chao Ming-chieh said.
Volcano erupts in Indonesia
KARO: An Indonesian volcano that has erupted relentlessly for months shot volcanic ash into the air 30 times yesterday, forcing further evacuations with more than 20,000 people now displaced, an official said.
Mount Sinabung on the western island of Sumatra sent rivers of lava flowing through an evacuation zone and columns of volcanic cloud up as high as 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Agencies
