Eight ‘taxi drivers’ arrested for scamming tourists at Schiphol

DutchNews, April 14, 2017

Eight men have been arrested for scamming tourists arriving at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport by charging them extortionate fees for short taxi journeys, the public prosecution department said on Friday. 

Several of the eight men picked up had official taxi licences but the others were operating illegally, the department said. 

The taxis picked up foreign tourists at Schiphol who wanted to go to Amsterdam. At the end of their journey they attempted to charge their passengers ridiculously high fees and put considerable pressure on them if they refused to do so. 

One Swedish tourist was charged €595 for a trip to the centre of the capital. As he only had €300 in cash, the driver forced him to withdraw the rest from an ATM. In another case, a tourist from Japan was held hostage in the cab because he refused to pay a bill of €300. 

The eight men come from Amsterdam and Zwanenburg and are aged between 23 and 31. Four of them have been remanded in custody. 

Police also found a gun and two tasers at the home of one of the suspects. 

Haarlemermeer town council introduced a ban on taxi touts in February. Drivers caught breaking the law can be fined up to €1,500. 

Last year, a taxi driver tried to charge a group of Chinese tourists €485 to take them from Schiphol airport to their hotel in the west of the city. 

When the group tried to leave the taxi after refusing to pay, the driver drove off with them inside. In the end one of them managed to break a window and the taxi stopped.

Inaugural commercial flight from US lands in Cuba

Yahoo – AFP, Hector Velasco, with Leila Macor in Fort Lauderdale, August 31, 2016

JetBlue Flight 386 departs for Cuba from Fort Lauderdale airport, Florida, on
August 31, 2016 (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise)

Santa Clara (Cuba) (AFP) - The first regular commercial flight in more than 50 years from the United States landed in Cuba on Wednesday, as the two nations took the latest step in their efforts to boost ties.

JetBlue Flight 387 landed in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara a little before 11:00 am (1500 GMT), about an hour after leaving Fort Lauderdale in southeastern Florida with 150 passengers on board.

The plane was greeted with a water cannon salute, an aviation tradition in which aircraft pass under arcs of water before flying to their destinations for the first time. Its departure from Florida was celebrated the same way.

The first two passengers off the plane carried US and Cuban flags as they descended the stairs onto the tarmac, where they symbolically exchanged the banners in a sign of friendship.

The plane was scheduled to complete the round trip later in the day, returning to Fort Lauderdale.

The flight was the first of 110 expected daily trips connecting US cities to airports in the Communist-run island, many of them in or near tourism hotspots.

Regular air service was severed during the Cold War, and charter flights have been the only air links since.

US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the watershed.

"The 1st US commercial flight to #Cuba since 1961, just over a year after raising the flag at US Embassy Havana. Another step fwd," he wrote on Twitter.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who was on the JetBlue flight, will meet with local officials during his visit, Cuba's transport ministry said.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx arrives at the airport of Santa Clara, Cuba

 on August 31, 2016 on the first commercial flight between the United States and

Cuba since 1961 (AFP Photo/Alejandro Ernesto)

Party in Florida

The Fort Lauderdale airport was in full party mode near Jet Blue's departure area -- a live salsa band blared Cuban favorites as passengers and bystanders broke into spontaneous dances.

There were cheers, applause and a sea of balloons as boarding for the historic flight got underway.

For some, there were also tears of joy.

"I am so proud, so overcome with emotion," said Domingo Santana, 53, who left Cuba when he was just six years old.

Since then, he said, "I've never been in my country. I don't know my country," adding: "It's a great opportunity."

History in the making

The JetBlue flight was flown by Captain Mark Luaces and First Officer Francisco Barreras, both Americans of Cuban descent, the airline said.

One passenger, Aleisy Barreda, 46, was overcome with emotion.

Passengers arriving at the airport of Santa Clara, Cuba on August 31, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

"This reopening has really benefitted us," she gushed.

"Not only in terms of the ticket prices, but also in terms of how much easier it is to purchase them," she said -- a reference to the rock bottom promotional ticket price starting at $99 one way, including checked bag.

"Now we only need more vacation time!"

The last regular commercial flight between the two countries took place in 1961, when air links fell victim to the Cold War.

Air travel between the United States and Cuba has been restricted to charter flights since 1979.

Washington and Havana agreed in February to restore direct commercial flights -- one of several watershed changes initiated in December 2014, when US President Barack Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro announced a thaw after more than 50 years of hostility.

Diplomatic relations were restored in July 2015.

Milestone

Washington still bans Americans from visiting Cuba as tourists, but travel is permitted for 12 other categories, including cultural and educational exchange.

The renewed links are a "milestone" in relations between the United States and Cuba, said Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

Regular flights "will allow more fluid movement of people, goods, information and ideas between two places that are very close geographically but distant politically," he said.

Cuban ambassador to the United States Jose Cabanas unveils a 

poster during a press conference at Fort Lauderdale airport, Florida, on 

August 31, 2016 (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise)

Cuba: 'Hot' travel destination

Of the 3.5 million tourists in Cuba in 2015, only 161,000 were Americans.

However, that number was up 77 percent from the previous year and Americans are now expected to become a major component in a growth industry expected to reach 6.8 million visitors in 2018.

Travel agents said US interest in making the short journey to the island has skyrocketed.

"There's a lot of interest in Cuba. It's the hot, 'in' place right now," said Frank Gonzalez, owner of the Mambi travel agency which offers packages to the island from the United States that include cultural workshops.

Twenty daily routes to Havana are pending.

The airlines designated to fly to the nine Cuban airports -- not including Havana -- include American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines, according to the US government.

Flights departing from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia will head to the Cuban cities Camaguey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.

Travel firms to brief holidaymakers on their trip’s environmental footprint

DutchNews, April 12, 2016

A Fokker 70 takes off from Schiphol
airport. Photo jvanderwolf via
Depositphotos

Dutch travel firms are to start informing holidaymakers how much environmental damage their trip is doing by listing ‘holiday footprints’ in brochures and on websites, travel sector organisation ANVR says in Tuesday’s Volkskrant. 

‘We aim to eventually allow consumers to calculate their own holiday footprint via an app or website,’ ANVR spokesman Gerben Hardeman told the paper. ‘We are still a long way off that. But we are now working with a group of travel firms to determine how we can best inform consumers about what we know already.’ 

By helping consumers to realise the impact of their holiday on the environment, holidaymakers can ‘make a responsible choice’, he said. 

Currently, airline passengers can pay extra to offset the cost to the climate of their journey. The amounts vary from €10 to €100, depending on the way the potential damage is calculated by different airlines. 

The system used by the ANVR has been developed by researchers at several hbo colleges and 10 travel firms. It is based on confidential information from airline manufacturers, airlines themselves and the hotel website Booking.com.

Iran plans to buy aircraft from France to build up ageing fleet

Tehran has said it will buy over a hundred airplanes from France. The deal will be signed during President Rouhani's visit to Paris this week.

Deutsche Welle, 24 January 2016

Tehran's transport minister said on Sunday the country planned to acquire 114 Airbus planes in an effort to refurbish its ageing passenger fleet.

Iran Air will sign the deal when President Hassan Rouhai visits France next week.

The Iranian transport ministry was quoted as saying it had been negotiating for the planes for the past ten months but couldn't pay for them due to the international sanctions implemented against Iran.

The announcement came as aviation industry experts convened in Tehran.

"It's a really exciting time, there's never been a situation like this," aviation consultant Peter Harbison told the AFP news agency. "A whole array of different aviation services and new jobs are obviously going to be created."

More plans to expand fleet

Iran hopes to boost tourism to the country following its nuclear accord with the United States, Europe and other countries last year. It says it wants to acquire 400 long- and mid-range and 100 short-range planes.

Only nine of the country's 67 airports are even operational.

The transport ministry also said it plans to negotiate with the American company Boeing, although no deals are yet in place.

Rouhani is visiting France and Italy in an effort to boost economic ties with Europe.

blc/rc (AFP, Reuters)

Regular flights to resume between US and Cuba: State Department

Yahoo – AFP, December 17, 2015

The United States announced Thursday the resumption of regular

flights to and from Cuba (AFP Photo)

Washington (AFP) - The United States and Cuba announced Thursday plans to resume flights between the two countries, erasing another vestige of what had been strained ties rooted in the Cold War.

The latest progress as the countries work to build on their restoration of full diplomatic relations this summer was made public a year to the day after Barack Obama and Raul Castro first said they would bury the hatchet.

In a short statement, the US State Department said that on Wednesday Washington and Havana had reached "a bilateral arrangement to establish scheduled air services between the two countries."

An old American car passes by the

 US Embassy in Havana on December 17,

 2015 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

But this does not mean American tourists can now start flocking to communist-run Cuba to lie on beaches, sip rum and fire up cigars.

Such travel is still illegal, as the trade embargo that the Americans slapped on Cuba in 1960 after Fidel Castro came to power in a communist revolution remains in effect.

In a statement marking the anniversary of the start of the reconciliation, Obama renewed his call for the Republican-controlled Congress to lift the embargo, which he termed the "legacy of a failed policy."

Republicans are wary of rewarding Cuba until it improves its human rights record.

Until now only charter flights were allowed. Current US law also allowed for special permits to visit Cuba, and the criteria for getting one of these have been looser since January.

The charter flights will continue under the new agreement, and scheduled flights for non-tourist purposes will also start, according to the US statement.

Although the ban on tourist travel remains in force, the new accord will "facilitate an increase in authorized travel, enhance traveler choices, and promote people-to-people links between the two countries."

It added: "a stronger civil aviation relationship will facilitate growth in authorized travel between our two countries."

The Cuban Embassy in Washington said the two countries had reached preliminary agreement on a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of regular flights.

Its adoption by the two governments will be confirmed in the next few days, the embassy added.

Airlines eager to fly

Under the new arrangement airlines in the two countries can now strike deals in such areas as code-sharing and aircraft leasing, the embassy said.

Ever since the historic thaw began a year ago US airlines have been eager to start flying to Cuba and tap its potential as a new market.

Tourists visit the Old Havana, on December 16, 2015 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

These include American Airlines, which runs 22 weekly charter flights to Cuba from New York and Newark, New Jersey.

JetBlue and United, which also fly charters to Cuba from those two cities, are also chomping at the bit to begin all-out service to the island.

The United States and Cuba formally restored diplomatic relations in July and re-opened embassies in each other's capitals.

Obama said he had made the decision because he had concluded that 50 years of trying to encourage democratic and economic change in Cuba by isolating it had simply failed. It is better to engage Cuba and work with it, he said.

The countries are now attempting the arduous task of achieving fully normal relations, like those of any other countries without a historic bone to pick.

As part of that process the countries set up commissions to address specific issues and accords have been reached in such areas as migration, mail service and cooperation on science and the fight against drug trafficking.

But in April Raul Castro said full normalization would take time.

Cuba wants the embargo lifted, payment of damages for what it calls lost revenue as a result of that embargo, and talks on recovering the land which it leases to the United States and that houses a US naval base and the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects.

Washington for its part is seeking damages for property that Cuba seized from US companies and citizens in the early 1960s, and also wants to see democratic and free-market reforms on the island.

Volcano ash grounds flights in Bali

Indonesia has been forced to close two airports until Thursday because of ash from an erupting volcano on a nearby island. More than 100 flights have been grounded.

Deutsche Welle, 4 Nov 2015

Meteorological authorities say both Bali's international airport and Selaparang airport in West Nusa Tenggara will remained closed until at least Thursday.

"The wind has blown the volcanic ash towards Bali in such a way that it covers the sky around the airport, making conditions unsuitable for flying," Bali airport official Yulfiadi told the AFP news agency.

#Bali airport to remain closed through Thursday morning due to #volcano. #Indonesia https://t.co/MHru15wPTT pic.twitter.com/474sRR0nLz

— Bob James (@NotThatBobJames) November 4, 2015

A total of 106 flights scheduled to take off Wednesday were canceled, including 59 international flights. Ash from a different volcano had stranded thousands of passengers on Bali for days during the peak holiday season in July.

Airlines are concerned that ash could damage jet engines, even causing spontaneous failure in some cases. The eruption began Sunday.

"Volcanic ash, even if it's invisible, is very dangerous for aircraft," transport ministry spokesman Julius Barata told the DPA news agency.

Air traffic is regularly disrupted by volcanic activity in Indonesia, which is located in a basin of the Pacific Ocean home to about 130 active volcanoes, the greatest concentration in the world.

jar/jr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Related Article:

Hundreds stranded, flights cancelled as Indonesian volcano erupts

Russian plane broke up 'in the air': expert probing crash

Yahoo – AFP, Haitham El-Tabei, 1 Nov 2015

Mourners lay flowers at Pulkovo International Airport outside St. Petersburg on

 November 1, 2015 as Russia mourned its biggest-ever air disaster, a crash in

Egypt that claimed 224 lives (AFP Photo/Olga Maltseva)

WADI Al-ZOLOMAT (Egypt) (AFP) - A Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt broke up "in the air" strewing fragments across a wide area, an expert said Sunday as investigators probed the disaster that killed 224 people.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged patience to determine the cause of Saturday's crash, after the Islamic State jihadist group (IS) claimed it brought down the A-321 in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula.

"The disintegration happened in the air and the fragments are strewn over a large area," said Viktor Sorochenko, a senior official with Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, quoted by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti from Cairo.

Sorochenko, who is heading an international panel of experts, said it was "too early to draw conclusions" about what caused the flight from the Red Sea holiday resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg to crash.

Investigators have recovered the "black box" flight recorders and the Egyptian government said its contents were being analysed.

Egyptian soldiers stand guard next to the luggage and belongings of passengers

 of the A321 Russian airliner piled up at the site of the crash in Wadi el-Zolmat

in the Sinai Peninsular on November 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

"In such cases, leave it to specialists to determine the cause of the plane crash because it is a subject of an extensive and complicated technical study," Sisi said.

The crash site in the Wadi al-Zolomat area of North Sinai was littered with blackened aircraft parts Sunday as the smell of burnt metal lingered, an AFP correspondent said.

There were no bodies visible, but soldiers guarded dozen of bags and suitcases belonging to passengers from flight KGL 9268.

A tiny red jacket underlined the horror of the tragedy that also killed 17 children.

Officers involved in the search efforts said rescue crews had recovered 168 bodies so far, including one of a girl found eight kilometres (five miles) from the main wreckage.

Army helicopters hovered above the site as the search for bodies continued.

IS claim downplayed

Flags flew at half mast in Russia on Sunday and entertainment programmes on television were cancelled on a national day of mourning for the victims, most of them Russians ranging in age from 10 months to 77 years.

Cairo said there were 214 Russian and three Ukranian passengers on board, and seven crew members.

Thousands of Russians gathered in Saint Petersburg's Palace Square to observe a minute's silence and release doves and balloons to the darkening sky.

"It was impossible for me not to come," said Nika Kletskikh, 27, who lost a friend in the crash.

"It's so awful to think that she's no longer there."

Both Cairo and Moscow have downplayed the claim from Egypt's IS branch that it brought down the aircraft flown by the airline Kogalymavia, operating under the name Metrojet.

Russia held a day or mourning after 224 people died when a Russian airliner 

crashed in Egypt's Sinai (AFP Photo/Yury Kirnichny)

Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed the militants could not down a plane flying at 30,000 feet (9,000 metres), the aircraft's flight level, and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim "cannot be considered accurate".

A Russian team including Sokolov and the emergencies minister, Vladimir Puchkov, visited the scene in a remote part of the Sinai. Later on Sunday they left for Moscow.

Two air accident investigators from France -- Airbus's home country -- were also due in Egypt along with six experts from the aerospace giant.

Germany's Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France all said they would halt flights over Sinai until the reasons for the crash were known.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off early on Saturday.

Wreckage and dead bodies were found scattered over a large area south of the town of El-Arish. Many bodies were missing limbs, said an officer, who requested anonymity.

The IS affiliate waging an insurgency in the Sinai claimed it brought down the aircraft in revenge for Russian air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria.

But experts dismissed the idea.

To reach a plane at that altitude "you would need hard-to-use missiles, so it seems unlikely," said Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of France's BEA aviation investigation agency.

"This requires trained people and equipment that IS does not have, to my knowledge."

Experts said a surface-to-air missile could have struck the aircraft if it had been descending, and that a bomb on board could not yet be ruled out, but technical or human error was more likely.

Debris from the Russian A321 at the site of the crash in Wadi el-Zolmat 

on November 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

Full check

An Egyptian air traffic control official said the pilot told him in their last exchange that he had radio trouble, but Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Hossam Kamal said communications had been "normal".

"There was nothing abnormal... and the pilot didn't ask to change the plane's route," he said.

Russia has a dismal air safety record, and while larger carriers have begun upgrading ageing fleets, the crash is likely to raise concerns about smaller airlines such as Kogalymavia.

On Sunday, the Russian transportation watchdog, Rostransnadzor, ordered Kogalymavia to perform a full check on its A-321s.

Kogalymavia confirmed the instructions but denied this amounted to a de facto grounding of its remaining fleet of six A-321 airliners.

The last major air crash in Egypt was in 2004, when a Flash Airlines Boeing 737 plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people on board.

Egypt air crash: Accident or attack? https://t.co/SpTFyxSnhJ pic.twitter.com/5LGCZUcf2v

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 1, 2015

Related Articles:

Crash means gloomy days ahead for Egypt's tourist jewel

'90 percent' certainty Russia plane downed by bomb - New
Russian airline blames Egypt crash on 'external' factors
Black boxes recovered from Russian flight crash site, says Egypt

All aboard the Vatican train for pope's summer castle

Yahoo – AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 14 Sep 2015

A steam locomotive prepares to depart from the Vatican's train station to the

pope's summer home of Castel Gandolfo (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Castel Gandolfo (Italy) (AFP) - It was once used exclusively by popes, but the Vatican's train line can now be ridden by all from the Holy See to the papal summer palace.

Each Saturday, tourists can climb aboard for an express trip to Castel Gandolfo, a lavish estate Pope Francis has never used but wanted to share with the public in a gesture which will also boost the Church's coffers.

From San Pietro, to Trastevere and Ostiense, the train chugs through the Italian capital and its green suburbs, down past the Roman ruins on the Via Appia, before climbing through the Alban hills to the picturesque Lake Albano.

The crew of a steam locomotive prepare

 for its departure from the Vatican's train

 station to the pope's summer home of

 Castel Gandolfo (AFP Photo/Filippo

Monteforte)

Some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Rome, it pulls to a stop at the castle town, a former summer favourite with popes hoping to escape the heat of the capital, and still frequented occasionally by Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI.

The villa and gardens, owned by the Holy See since 1596, expanded over the centuries to include other properties and now sprawl over 55 hectares (135 acres).

Inside the grounds, there are views down to the lake or glimpses of the sea beyond gardens decorated with sculptures. There are also orchards of apricot, peach and olive trees, and greenhouses of ornamental flowers.

The estate's gardens first opened to the public in 2014, with tours organised for groups and by reservation only.

But workaholic Francis, who does not take vacations and has only been to the summer palace twice, urged his Museum's director to go further, opening up the entire estate and setting up a new museum.

'Closed for centuries'

Visitors to the villa can stand where popes down the centuries stood to bless summer Sunday crowds -- the very window from which Benedict XVI said his last goodbyes before retiring from the papacy.

As well as a papal portrait gallery, visitors can pore over embellished vestments worn by the holders of Saint Peter's Chair down the ages, including elegant papal slippers of the type shunned by down-to-earth Francis.

For 40 euros ($45), tourists get the full package: they can skip the queue in the morning to see the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel in Rome, before walking through the Vatican's gardens to the train station.

Once at Castel Gandolfo, they hop on a special white tourist train which takes them around the papal villa, including past the pope's organic farm, which houses cows, free-range hens, cockerels and pontifical bees.

From the train's windows they get a glimpse at the makings of the papal menu: freshly laid eggs, milk, vegetables, fruit, honey and fat rounds of caciotta cheese from the farm often end up on the pope's table back in the Vatican.

Tourists can now take a train trip to Castel Gandolfo, a lavish estate Pope Francis

has never used but wanted to share with the public (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Visitors can then wander around the town of Castel Gandolfo, a mediaeval borough listed among Italy's most beautiful, before getting the train back to the Vatican in the afternoon.

There is also a 16 euro option for those who want to skip the Vatican Museums and just do Castel Gandolfo.

Frugal Francis, who has shunned the Holy See's papal apartments for life in a Vatican hotel, has said he has no time to visit the estate -- a decision, however, which has seen local shopkeepers hit by a drop in tourism.

The Argentine hopes that by launching the new link with the summer palace it will revive the struggling businesses.

"Seeing as he's unable to spend time at Castel Gandolfo because of his numerous engagements, Francis wanted to make a generous gesture so that we can all visit a place which has been closed for so many centuries," Osvaldo Gianoli, director of the Castel Gandolfo villas, told AFP.

Crackdown on bad behavior by Chinese air passengers

Want China Times, Li Hsin-tung and Staff Reporter 2015-08-14

Passengers boarding a plane at Chongqing Jiangbei International
Airport, July 27. (File photo/Xinhua)

The Chinese authorities have decided to reign in disorderly behavior among air passengers, announcing new safety rules that ban travelers from occupying seats not assigned to them.

The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) of China reiterated its determination to crack down on illegal or unsafe behavior by air passengers in a statement released Aug. 12.

The CAA highlighted 11 types of bad behavior, such as blocking security checks and boarding gates, attacking or threatening attacks on crew members and occupying seats not assigned to them, for which people will face fines of up to 3,000 yuan (US$469) and even detention.

According to the CAA, airport authorities across the country reported 16 violations between late July and early August, including passengers opening airplane doors, fighting in the terminal and smoking during flights.

One man was detained for five days for making a hoax bomb threat when going through a security check at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in northeastern China Aug. 5.

Another man was arrested and detained for five days after pushing a staff member when going through security checks at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in central China Aug. 11.

A report about a 12-year-old girl being denied boarding Aug. 6 after she insulted flight attendants also sparked discussion in China.

The amount of problematic behavior, which is rising along with the growing number of overseas trips made by Chinese travelers, has led to calls for stricter regulations.

According to China's three major state-owned carriers–Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines–the number of passengers on their international flights between January and June is estimated to have grown by 20%-40% from last year.

Related Articles:

China to 'blacklist' its unruly tourists: report

China desperate to improve image of its overseas tourists

Twisted Taipei mailboxes to be moved as crowds disrupt traffic

Want ChinaTimes, CNA and Staff Reporter 2015-08-12

People line up to have their photo taken with the now famous mailboxes
in Taipei, Aug. 9. (Photo/CNA)

Two roadside mailboxes in Taipei that have become a visitor attraction since they were bent to one side by strong winds from Typhoon Soudelor on Aug. 8 will be relocated after drawing so many people that traffic has been affected and nearby residents inconvenienced.

Chunghwa Post has decided to remove the mailboxes from service because the crowds lining up to have their photos taken with them have been disrupting traffic and disturbing residents, the company announced Tuesday.

The mailboxes, nicknamed "Xiao Hong" (Little Red)" and "Xiao Lu" (Little Green) by their fans, will be removed from their current spot on the intersection of Nanjing East Road and Longjiang Road on Aug. 13 and relocated to the entrance to the Postal Museum Taipei Beimen Branch, where they will be used as an exhibit, Chunghwa Post said.

A new mailbox will replace the damaged ones, the company said, adding that to mark the planned decommissioning of the mailboxes it has made a "smiling mailbox" commemorative seal. Post deposited in the twisted mailboxes in the period between 5 pm Wednesday and 5 pm Thursday will all be stamped with the seal so recipients can enjoy a little piece of history, Chunghwa Post said.

The decision to relocate Xiao Hong and Xiao Lu, however, has disappointed some of their online fans, who said "no one will pay attention to them" after they are relocated and called for them to be kept where they are.

The photo of the two twisted mailboxes has gone viral since being posted on the internet and Saturday. They were bent to one side by a signboard that fell to the ground during the storm in the early hours of the day, according to workers at a nearby convenience store.

North Korea opens new showcase airport terminal

Yahoo – AFP, Park Chan-Kyong, 2 July 2015

The opening ceremony for the new airport terminal for Pyongyang International

Airport takes place in the North Korean capital on July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo)

North Korea has opened a sleek new airport terminal, hailing it as a showcase of leader Kim Jong-Un's achievement after its construction had to be stopped halfway and redone at his whim.

Terminal 2 of Pyongyang International Airport, which is reserved for international civilian flights, opened for service on Wednesday, state media said.

"The terminal was built in a modern way from the gatepost to the airport to departure lounge, entry formalities hall, service halls, etc.," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

A general view of the new terminal at 

Pyongyang International Airport, seen 

on July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Late last year, the country's supreme leader ordered workers to demolish and rebuild portions of the new terminal, after they failed to execute the leadership's architectural vision for the building.

Pictures released by KCNA showed a glass-fronted, marble-floored terminal, a far cry from the old, drab socialist-style building.

One of the most outstanding differences was the presence of elevated passenger boarding walkways. In the past, travellers had to walk or drive across the tarmac to board their aircraft.

The terminal also appears to be fitted out with a coffee bar and a duty-free store stocked with chocolate Mars bars, Werther's Original candy and bottled beers.

During the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Pak Pong-Ju credited Kim's "ardent patriotic will and unremitting efforts" for putting the country's aviation sector on "a world level", according to KCNA.

Aviation enthusiast

Kim took power in 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il, who was afraid of flying and travelled everywhere by train.

But his son, who studied in Switzerland as a teenager, has shown a keen interest in aviation, flying a North Korean-made light plane himself in March, according to a video released by the North.

He has issued directives to improve the nation's inflight services and redesign Koryo Air's flight attendant uniforms, after the country's sole civilian airline came in for international mockery.

In July 2012, Kim ordered construction of the new terminal because the existing facility was considered too small and shabby compared with foreign rivals.

But in November last year, Kim stopped work on the project after inspecting the site.

The new terminal had to be partly demolished on Kim's order after he said the layout looked like "a copy" of a foreign facility.

He reproached workers for failing to carry out an earlier order from July that the project should reflect North Korea's "Juche" (self-reliance) philosophy and national identify.

Kim said there were "deviations in the interior layout including halls for check-in and departure", KCNA reported last November. Parts of these facilities had to be rebuilt as a result.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-Ju, inspects

 the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport, on June 25, 2015 (AFP Photo)

North Korean architecture is characterised by its monumental but sombre, socialist style that incorporates propaganda symbols of the communist state.

With the new terminal in place, the airport's other existing terminal is expected to be used only for the country's few domestic routes.

But the facility risks being virtually empty as Pyongyang receives few foreign flights, which mostly originate from Beijing and Moscow.

The new terminal is six times larger than the old one, but it remains unclear how North Korea will be able to generate the passenger numbers that would justify its construction.

However, the young leader has a penchant for showpiece construction projects.

Under his direction, a ski resort, water park and equestrian course have been built, but they are beyond the reach of the average citizen in the impoverished Stalinist state.

Since taking power, Kim has mobilised twice as many soldiers as his father, deploying some 200,000 soldiers -- one out of every five active servicemen -- to construction sites nationwide, including the airport terminal, resorts, public buildings and apartments.