■ Celebrities
Andy back for election
The actor known as Andy (安迪) and his wife came back to Taiwan on Sunday night and reported to the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office yesterday afternoon. They had to answer Tainan prosecutors' questions regarding a sex drugs and VCD case in which a number of suspects, who are now in custody, had attempted to blackmail the actor by threatening to release a VCD allegedly containing scenes of Andy using drugs and engaging in sex acts. Before he began his meeting with prosecutors, Andy told reporters that he came back to show his patriotism by voting instead of facing the judicial process of the case. However, he will cooperate with law enforcement officers to help them clarify all the questions they may have. The interrogation was still ongoing as of press time yesterday.
■ Election
Hundreds of reporters arrive
More than 700 foreign journalists are expected to cover the presidential election and referendum, according to the Government Information Office (GIO). The 1996 election saw a record number of 710 foreign journalists from 29 countries covering the nation's first direct presidential poll. Statistics made available by the GIO yesterday showed that in addition to 100 foreign correspondents stationed in Taiwan, more than 600 foreign journalists are expected to fly in to cover the election. They include 53 reporters from six countries in the Americas, 59 from 14 European countries and 102 from 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The GIO also expects about 30 academics from overseas universities and think tanks. It said that it will arrange for them to visit the campaign headquarters of the two political camps, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the Central Election Commission.
■ Election
TVBS to air exit poll
TVBS will hold the first nation-wide exit poll for Saturday's election, officials of the cable TV company said yesterday. TVBS said it planned to screen the results of a poll of at least 16,500 people at 4:01pm on Saturday, one minute after polling stations are closed. TVBS poll center director Wang Yeh-diing said the margin of error for the poll was expected to be less than 1 percent, but the station might withhold the results if they appeared inaccurate. An estimated 16.5 million people are eligible to vote. More than 80 percent of voters turned out for the 2000 election.
■ Education
Scholarships to be expanded
In a bid to upgrade the nation's competitive edge in technology, the Cabinet yesterday approved increasing the annual quota of students studying on government funds from the current 235 to 1,000 by 2008. "We're thinking of raising the number to 755 next year, 820 by 2006, 910 by 2007 and ultimately 1,000 by 2008," Minister without Portfolio Tsai Ching-yen (蔡清彥) said. Among the 755 slots for next year, Tsai said that 500 will go to undergraduates and master's degree holders wishing to pursue a doctoral degree overseas. The expansion in the program is estimated to cost the government NT$415 million (US$12.58 million) annually. One-hundred-twenty out of the 755 places will go to doctoral candidates wishing to conduct studies abroad for between seven and 12 months. The annual quota for that category currently is 92. While no ceiling will be set for doctorate degree holders wishing to conduct studies overseas, Tsai said that the Cabinet hopes to send 30 qualified candidates to study abroad next year.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift