■ CRIME
Man jailed over fire deaths
A man was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for urging neighbors to jump from a burning building, causing two deaths, local media reported yesterday. The man, identified by his surname Hsueh (薛), was convicted of manslaughter after an April blaze in Taoyuan County that trapped four people on the sixth floor of their apartment building, media reports said. Ignoring instructions from the firefighters, Hsueh yelled at the four, urging them to jump, the reports said. Two of them leapt straight to their deaths, while one was paralyzed and another severely wounded, they said.
■ TOURISM
PRC tourists visiting lake
More than 1,000 Chinese tourists will celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival at Sun Moon Lake, officials said yesterday. The festival falls on Oct. 3 this year. In anticipation of the occasion, the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration will put on a free lakefront concert and fireworks for visitors on the night of the holiday. Expected visitors to the area will include several groups of Chinese tourists totaling more than 1,000 people, who will gather at the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village for a party, then move to the lakeside to admire the full moon, Nantou County Government officials said. Officials said that the county's focus on promoting festival tours had produced good results. For example, a special package launched during the Lunar New Year holiday last year attracted more than 3,000 Chinese tourists, and approximately 2,000 Chinese tourists took part in the 27th mass swim across Sun Moon Lake on Sept. 20 — the highest number of Chinese participants on record, they said.
■ AGRICULTURE
Taiwan to buy US produce
Taiwan is expected to purchase US$3.5 billion in soybeans, corn and wheat from the US over the next two years under the terms of letters of intent sealed between the two sides on Thursday in Washington. Taiwanese representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) said Taiwan is the US' ninth-largest trade partner and the seventh-largest market for US agricultural exports, with 95 percent of Taiwan's wheat imports supplied by the US. In terms of per capita consumption, Taiwan is the world's biggest consumer of US agricultural products, Yuan said. He said the visit by the Taiwanese delegation was a demonstration of the importance Taiwan attaches to economic and trade relations with the US, adding that he hoped the two sides would sign a free-trade agreement soon. The 22-member delegation is headed by Paul Sun (孫明賢), chairman of the World Vegetable Center. After leaving the US capital, the delegation will travel in two groups to various US states for field visits and meetings with local organizations and officials.
■ EDUCATION
TAS marks 60 years
The Taipei American School (TAS) celebrated its 60th anniversary yesterday with a birthday cake and students singing Happy Birthday at the school lobby. Aside from having a birthday cupcake for lunch, students also received a surprise birthday present — pencils commemorating the school's 60th anniversary. TAS was founded by American and Taiwanese missionaries, the school said in a statement. “Classes started at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary with only 8 students on Zhongshan North Road in the city on September 26, 1949,” the release said. “The school now has nearly 2,200 students representing 31 nationalities.”
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