■ CRIME
Kuo Kuan-ying indicted
Prosecutors charged former Toronto-based Government Information Office official Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英) yesterday with defamation for making personal attacks on former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) and Contemporary Magazine editor-in-chief Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒). Chen and Chin filed a lawsuit on April 1, accusing Kuo of publishing articles in which he called them“violent pro-independence dogs” and other names. Using the pen name Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽), Kuo on Dec. 15 described the two as “violent pro-independence supporters” and “eunuch’s dogs,” adding that he himself was a “high-class Mainlander” and that Chen and Chin were “high-class Mainlander dogs,” the pair said. The indictment said Kuo’s comments had damaged Chen and Chin’s reputations. Kuo was stripped of his civil servant status in March in the wake of a controversy over online articles he wrote under Fan and other pen names that smeared Taiwan and Taiwanese.
■ SOCIETY
No decision on tombs site
The Tainan City Government said on Thursday that no decision would be made on relocating a group of ancient tombs unearthed at a military residential compound in January until the end of this month. Department of Culture and Tourism Director Hsu Geng-hsiu (許耿修) said the city government asked a professional archeology group to examine the site, where at least 60 tombs dating back to the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty are located. The tombs were unearthed in Shuijiao She (水交社), one of the largest military residential compounds in Tainan, when workers were clearing land for the development of new roads. The site is believed to be a graveyard for people who died during the era when Koxinga’s son, Zheng Jing (鄭經), ruled the Tainan area at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Artifacts unearthed from the site so far include tea pots, bronze coins and ceramics.
■ CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Wu in Changsha for forum
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) arrived yesterday in Changsha, Hunan Province, to attend the KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum on economic and cultural exchanges that begins today. Before boarding a chartered flight at Taipei’s Songshan Airport yesterday, Wu told reporters the forum would focus on education and culture. Talks will be held on how to preserve and ensure the continuation of Chinese culture while trying to innovate, he said, adding that other subjects include cross-strait cooperation in the promotion of the culture industry and educational exchanges. Wu said the forum was no longer limited to KMT and CCP participants.
■ POLITICS
Ex-lawmaker appeals
Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who last month lost his legislative seat because of vote-buying, filed an appeal with the Control Yuan yesterday, calling on it to impeach the prosecutors and judges in charge of his case. The Tainan Branch of the Taiwan High Court on June 30 upheld a lower court’s decision that invalidated Chang’s legislative victory last year. The final verdict said the election was not fair and valid because Chang’s father bought votes for his son. Chang said the witness statement was fabricated by prosecutors and that the lawyer of a suspect-turned-prosecution-witness and prosecutors did not record the whole investigation.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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