■ EDUCATION
Minister mum on dispute
Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) yesterday declined to comment on National Chengchi University’s refusal to renew the teaching contract of former Ministry of Education secretary-general Chuang Kuo-rong (莊國榮), who drew strong criticism as a ministry official for comments about then-presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and for his handling of the name change of National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. The university said it would not renew Chuang’s contract on Wednesday, citing “gender discrimination” and “indecent speech” as the reasons. The university said a profane comment Chuang made one week before the election about Ma’s father was inappropriate. Chuang had earlier also called Ma “a weakling” and insinuated that Ma and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) were homosexual. After losing his contract, Chuang said he hoped the ministry would stand by him.
■ BIOLOGY
Unknown beetle discovered
A biologist at Kenting National Park in Pingtung County has spotted an unknown species of longhorn beetle, sources at the park administration said yesterday. The sources said that a new species of longhorn beetle was first found in 2003 by Chung Yi-ting (鍾奕霆), a researcher at the park’s Houbihu Service Station, and that Chung spotted the same species a second time earlier this year. Several taxonomists who had examined the specimen said the latest longhorn beetle of euryclytosemia genus may be a new species. The park administration has decided to request assistance from other experts around the world to certify the findings. Currently, only one species of the euryclytosemia genus has been spotted in Taiwan.
Proposed legislation in the US outlines three conditions in which Washington would be authorized to protect Taiwan were China to invade, a report said yesterday. US Representative Ted Yoho this month said he would introduce a Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act, which would authorize US military force if China were to invade Taiwan-controlled areas, including its outlying islands. According to a version of the bill obtained by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times), the bill lists three conditions in which a US president would be authorized to use military force to protect Taiwan: If China uses military force
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found four men guilty of attempted murder in the 2017 stabbing of Spanish surfer Ignacio Prio on a Pingtung County beach in the final ruling in the case, sentencing them to three-and-a-half to six years in prison. The defendants had appealed their convictions for attempted murder in the first and second rulings, which had also led to prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half years to six years. The then-42-year-old Prio went to Jialeshui Beach (佳樂水) near Kenting (墾丁) on March 31, 2017, was attacked after he asked four men to remove their fishing lines from an area
Two new commuter trains are scheduled to be launched in January next year, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday. The acquisition of EMU-900 commuter train cars is part of the railway operator’s plan to replace 589 train cars that have been in operation for more than three decades. The agency has also placed orders to buy 600 intercity train cars. The first batch of 20 EMU-900 cars is to be delivered to the nation in September, although delivery might be delayed until October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said. The batch would be formed into two trains of 10
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
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