■ POLITICS
Lee rebuts Chen comment
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) rebutted an accusation by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that Lee was involved in money laundering. Lee was responding to remarks by Chen that the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office was investigating an NT$1.6 billion (US$49 million) money laundering case that involved Lee. “I welcome any investigation, and please make it quick,” Lee told reporters, adding that Chen’s statement was false, but that he “would not bother to argue with Chen.” Lee went on to say that if Chen hoped to get a milder penalty for allegedly laundering money by saying Lee had done the same thing, “he would only make himself a laughing stock.”
■ ECONOMY
Ministry promotes hotline
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday encouraged people facing unexpected financial difficulties and other problems as a result of the ailing economy to call the “1957 national welfare hotline” for help. The central government, in collaboration with local governments, set up the hotline in November 2006 to help people with financial problems. The hotline offers access to legal counseling and other services. So far this year, an average of 1,000 to 1,990 calls per month were made to the hotline, the ministry said. Many people have overcome their difficulties with the help of the hotline, the ministry said.
■ SOCIETY
Man overdoses in taxi
A taxi driver drove passengers around for a day with a dead friend sitting in the front seat, TVBS reported on Saturday. TVBS said the taxi driver, identified only as Wang, picked up a friend, Kuo Chun-chieh (郭俊賢), in Changhua County at about 10pm on Wednesday. Kuo, 35, was drunk and asked Wang to drive him to Lugang (鹿港) to see a friend. At the friend’s home, Kuo picked up a parcel, got back into the taxi, and asked Wang to drive him to Taichung City. Sitting in the front seat beside the driver, Kuo reportedly injected himself in the arm with a drug and passed out. TVBS said that Wang, believing Kuo was “asleep,” drove the taxi home and left Kuo inside. The next morning, seeing that Kuo had not stirred, Wang reportedly drove his taxi around and picked up several passengers during the day with Kuo slumped in the front seat, believing he was still sleeping. It was not until about 10pm on Thursday that Wang reportedly realized that Kuo was dead and drove to a police station. An autopsy showed on Friday that Kuo had died of a drug overdose. However, police said they found it difficult to believe that Wang did not realize earlier that Kuo had died.
■ COMMUNICATION
Cables sustain damage
Breaks in three submarine cables under the Mediterranean Sea, possibly caused by a ship’s anchor, have disrupted Internet and international telephone services in parts of the Middle East and as far as Taiwan, officials said on Saturday. A ship carrying a submarine repair robot was on its way to the site between Sicily and Tunisia on Saturday, with work expected to take until the end of the year, a spokesman for ship owner and telecom operator France Telecom said. The cables, owned by various consortiums, were damaged on Friday. “There are two theories: either the anchor of a ship, which could have displaced them ... or an earthquake. We think it’s the first theory,” spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard said. The damage to the SEA-ME-WE3, SEA-ME-WE4 and FLAG cables caused varying degrees of disruption from Zambia to India and Taiwan.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard