Police in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung City said yesterday they busted a factory that produced counterfeit products for pets, seizing fake Louis Vuitton (LV) garments with an estimated value of over NT$20 million (US$660,000).

A roller coaster facility in the E-Da World theme park was closed temporarily Sunday after a malfunction the previous day that left 23 people stuck 60 meters above ground for about three minutes.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu called yesterday for construction of a new convention center to be speeded up, saying that it will raise the profile of the southern port city.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu said Friday that she would like to travel with a delegation of city councilors that is planning to visit China in July.

A Taiwanese student quit university Thursday because of harassment by monkeys on campus, a news report said.

Crowne Plaza Kaohsiung, a hotel in the port city's E-Da World mall, will observe a voluntary one-hour blackout today, in an attempt to draw attention to the need for a sustained community-wide effort to protect Mother Earth.

Foreign tourists on a luxury cruise liner took a half-day tour Wednesday of the southern port city of Kaohsiung, which was not on their original itinerary, after scheduled port calls at Kobe and Kyoto in Japan were axed, Harbor Bureau officials said that day.

The ongoing nine major infrastructure projects in the southern port city of Kaohsiung clearly demonstrate the local government's commitment to leading Taiwan's second-largest city to a brighter future, the American Chamber of Commerce Kaohsiung said in the recently unveiled Southern Taiwan White Paper 2011.

Former Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing will leave for China Sunday on a 10-day visit.

Exports of anthurium flowers to Japan from the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung have dropped significantly in the past few days because of air transportation disruptions caused by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, an industry stakeholder said yesterday.