■ TRANSPORTATION
Vehicles must have a step
Starting in October, motor vehicles used to transport children will be required to have a step for boarding that is at least 20cm wide, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. Liu Shih-ming (劉士銘), section chief at the ministry's Department of Railways and Highways, said the existing regulations only state the height of the boarding step and that the width of most boarding steps is between 5cm and 10cm. "Children might fall off the step if it is not wide enough," he said. The ministry is in the process of amending the regulations, he said. Once the new policy takes effect, it will only apply to new vehicles. Kindergartens and daycare centers that use motor vehicles to transport children under seven years old will be required to observe the regulations.
■ DEFENSE
F-16 jet reported missing
The air force said yesterday that one of its Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets went missing during a routine training mission last night. The single-seater aircraft disappeared from radar screens 28 minutes after it took off from the Hualien air base at 6:50pm for a night training exercise, the air force said. At press time, two S-70C helicopters, a C-130 transport aircraft and two warships were still scouting the area where the jet was feared to have crashed, air force officials said. Hualien base spokesman Yang Feng-sheng (楊鳳生) said the jet's pilot, Major Ting Shih-pao (丁世寶), had not reported any technical problems or asked for help. Ting, 34, could have ejected before the jet crashed, Yang said. At press time, Ting was listed as missing and the air force was investigating the incident.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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