■POLITICS
Gift raises eyebrows
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) caused a controversy after the Apple Daily reported that she gave about 10 KMT lawmakers Chinese-made cellphones as presents. The move prompted speculation that she might be eyeing a seat on the KMT Central Standing Committee. The Chinese-language newspaper reported on Saturday that “a certain rich KMT legislator” had given colleagues phones valued at NT$3,000 as gifts for the Dragon Boat Festival. KMT Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said he had received a phone from Ho, but the present had nothing to do with the upcoming committee election. KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who also received a phone, said Ho couldn’t use the phones to win support for the election. Ho said the phones had nothing to do with the election. “I gave this present to my good friends because it would be very useful for elected representatives,” she said.
■ENVIRONMENT
Exposure leads to ban
A man who stripped while climbing Yushan (玉山) last week has been banned from the mountain and his case was sent to prosecutors because he had “ruined the scenery,” national park officials said. A friend took photos of a 30-year-old man, surnamed Lu (呂), posing naked on the 3,952m peak on Tuesday and posted them online, the officials said. The man has been barred from Yushan for one to three years and could face charges. “I think he was just goofing around,” a Yushan National Park Administration official said. “He said it was just for fun. But Taiwanese are conservative, and Yushan is our sacred peak.”
■CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Man arrested for threat
A Taiwanese man was arrested for threatening to attack a group of Chinese gymnasts visiting under a sports exchange program, Chinese-language media reported yesterday. The man, surnamed Liao (廖), was arrested in Taoyuan on Saturday after he reportedly made a phone call to a Taoyuan police station on Wednesday threatening to attack the gymnasts. Liao reportedly told police that he was a member of the Taiwan Independence Alliance and was angry that gymnasts were performing that evening at the Taoyuan Arena, so he was going to shoot them with a crossbow, media reports said. On hundred extra officers were sent to the arena and the exhibition went off smoothly. Police traced the call to a public telephone in Taipei, took fingerprints and arrested Liao on Saturday. During questioning, Liao, 45, reportedly told police he favored independence, and was angered by billboard ads for the gymnastic event. He said he made the threat to express his anger at China and because he was drunk. Police turned him over to prosecutors on charges of disturbing social order.
■WEATHER
Rain forecast for this week
Although the plum rains may have hit a record low this year, a front will begin to affect the country tomorrow, possibly bringing regional thunderstorms, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Intermittent rains were predicted for today in the north and northeast, as well as mountainous areas in the center and south and the front was expected to bring thunderstorms to the entire island on Wednesday. Intermittent rain and thunderstorms will affect the entire country until Saturday, when the front will move southward. Light rain is expected in the south and east from Saturday, cloudy skies elsewhere, the bureau said.
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
Taiwan must first strengthen its own national defense to deter a potential invasion by China as cross-strait tensions continue to rise, multiple European lawmakers said on Friday. In a media interview in Taipei marking the conclusion of an eight-member European parliamentary delegation’s six-day visit to Taiwan, the lawmakers urged Taipei to remain vigilant and increase defense spending. “All those who claim they want to protect you actually want to conquer you,” Ukrainian lawmaker Serhii Soboliev said when asked what lessons Taiwan could draw from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Soboliev described the Kremlin as a “new fascist Nazi regime” that justified
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