■ CRIME
Prosecutors slam report
The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) yesterday complained about unsubstantiated reports in the press about the case against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). “I told reporters last month that there is no evidence to prove that former president Chen Shui-bian had taken any cash by aircraft during his visits to Taiwan’s allies. I do not understand why such a story was still published today,” SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said. Chen made the remarks in response to a Chinese-language China Times report yesterday that said “the SIP discovered sufficient evidence” to prove that the former president had transported US$5 million, originally from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Palau on board a China Airlines’ plane during a trip in 2006. “Since the beginning of the investigation, we have not discovered any evidence to prove that allegation and we have not told any reporter that we have,” Chen Yun-nan said.
■ HISTORY
WWII graves located
Taiwan’s representative office in Papua New Guinea has located graves that it believes to be those of Republic of China (ROC) soldiers who died in World War II while they were enslaved by the Japanese army on the Pacific island, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Lee Tsung-fen (李宗芬), deputy-head of the ministry’s Department of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, said that local Chinese compatriots said the graves at Rabaul were first discovered by an Australian pilot. It is thought that more than 1,600 ROC soldiers were captured by the Japanese and sent to Papua New Guinea camp during the war. Many of the soldiers reportedly either died in the camp or on the way to it. Lee yesterday said the Ministry of National Defense would send officials to the island to ascertain the identities of those in the graves, adding that the ministry would decide whether to transport the remains back to Taiwan after consulting with the relatives of the men.
■ SOCIETY
Canadian to begin walk
Canadian Jean Beliveau, who is in the eighth year of his 12-year walk around the world to promote “peace and non-violence to the profit of the children of the world,” arrived in Taiwan on Sunday. The 53-year-old Beliveau will begin his walk from the northern tip of the nation to the south on Saturday and will be accompanied by Lin Ming-te (林明德), who has walked around the nation five times to promote environmental protection. Beliveau said yesterday at a press conference that while he doesn’t claim to have changed the world, he hopes to inject the brief thought of world peace in people he meets. The pair said they welcome anyone who wishes to join their 570km walk through Taiwan.
■ ENTERTAINMENT
Chen, Lu film opens today
A film about the election-eve gun attack on former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) will debut this week, when it is expected to reignite debate about the controversial 2004 shooting incident. The Hong Kong action movie Ballistic uses a fictional plot to revisit the March 19 assassination attempt, when Chen and Lu were shot and slightly injured during a campaign rally in Taichung. “The director thought this incident was really one of a kind, with a very dramatic element,” film producer Lin Shun-kuo said. “But it’s only an approximation of the incident, not totally consistent with what happened.
■ PANDAS
Panda house opens Jan. 26
The panda house at the Taipei Zoo will open to the public on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Jan. 26, the Taipei City Government said yesterday. City government spokesman Yang Hsiao-tung (羊曉東) said the 30-day quarantine period for the two giant pandas would end on Jan. 23. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) will officiate at the inauguration of the panda house on Jan. 24, after which the zoo is scheduled to close on Jan. 25 for Lunar New Year’s Eve, Yang said.
■ AVIATION
Airport system down again
The immigration computer system at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport broke down again yesterday at around 6:40pm, National Immigration Agency director-general Hsieh Li-gong (謝立功) told the Taipei Times by telephone, adding that the breakdown only lasted about 20 minutes and did not cause any major problems. Yesterday’s was the third time the system broke down this month.
■ SOCIETY
Flood center being built
The Water Resources Agency said yesterday that construction of a flood prevention command center in central Taiwan, equipped with a flood warning system, would be completed by the end of October. Officials in charge of river management said the flood warning system would allow staff at the command center to monitor water levels on the Dali River and the six tributaries that run through the Taichung basin, covering both Taichung City and Taichung County. The project was part of the central government’s three-stage flood control plan for the Dali River basin, which began in 2004 with a budget of NT$5.7 billion (US$171.97 million), officials said.
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The New Taipei City Art Museum this weekend plans to celebrate its first anniversary with a two-day extravaganza featuring live concerts and a large-scale synchronized fireworks and drone display, the New Taipei City Cultural Affairs Department said. The two-day celebrations are to take place in the museum’s outdoor park, with markets and live performances by singers including Ann Bai (白安), Bii (畢書盡) and the Cosmos People (宇宙人), the department said. The highlight on both evenings would be the "Echoes of Light" show, an aerial spectacle combining fireworks and drone performances designed around the concept of "dual stages in the sky," it
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