Military honor guards resumed their duties and performances at the mausoleums of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in Taoyuan County on Sunday.
“After requests were made by lawmakers and the Taoyuan County Government to the Ministry of National Defense, we were recommissioned for this assignment on June 16 and officially resumed our performances on June 22,” a press release from the Joint Forces Honor Guard (JFHG) read.
The JFHG said there are 32 members in the new joint honor guards, made up of service personnel from the Air Force, Army and Navy.
In the past, the three forces would take turns, rotating every three months, to guard and perform at the two mausoleums and the performances could be seen between 9am and 4pm each day.
But starting yesterday, the new honor guard squad at the two mausoleums would be composed of guards from three different forces and would perform every hour but only at weekends and on national holidays and always at the same time — between 9am to 4pm.
After the ministry closed the two mausoleums in January, it also terminated the military guard services and performances at the mausoleums.
Taoyuan County Government complained that it had lost at least NT$300 million (US$10 million) in potential tourism revenues since the two mausoleums were closed after the honor guards were withdrawn.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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