■MEDIA
Lawmaker pans NCC plan
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) yesterday voiced opposition to the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) proposal to relax restrictions on the government, political parties and the military from holding shares in media companies. The NCC said that while it was important for the three to stay out of the media, the rules had generated problems in some of the NCC’s rulings because some media corporations are publicly traded, meaning the government can purchase shares on the stock market. Lo yesterday said that allowing political parties to fund the media would be a setback to democracy. KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), however, said the NCC’s proposal was “practical.”
■TRANSPORTATION
TRA increases cruise trains
The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) said yesterday that it would increase cruise train services next year because they had proven popular among travelers. TRA Deputy Director-General Chang Ying-huei (張應輝) said the TRA launched cruise train services in August last year to test the market response. Since then, the administration dispatched a total of 131 cruise trains. Approximately 27,000 passengers boarded the cruise trains, which helped generate revenue of NT$12.23 million (US$378,000) for the nation’s biggest railway system. “Tickets for cruise trains were sold quickly, with all the seats booked,” Chang said. Meanwhile, the TRA also published the first issue of its cruise train magazine for customers of cruise train services. The magazine introduces five major cruise train routes around the nation, and has a page for passengers to collect memorial stamps on the routes.
■SOCIETY
Designer wins red dot
Taiwan visual designer Lin Horng-jer (林宏澤) won a “best of the best” award in the communication design category of this year’s red dot design awards — the world’s biggest design competition. Lin, the first Taiwanese to win the title, was recognized for his project Save Me, which advocates nature conservation, Kaohsiung City’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs said. The piece is made up of three different images: a man embracing the Earth, a polar bear with melting icebergs in the background and three Formosan landlocked salmon — an endangered species from Taiwan. Lin is an associate professor at Tainan University of Technology’s Department of Visual Communication Design and president of the Taiwan Poster Design Association.
■CRIME
Cop stabbed 10 times
A policeman surnamed Lai (賴), 27, from Dazhi Police station in Taipei was stabbed more than 10 times in the neck and back by a crime suspect surnamed Dai (戴) on Monday evening. The policeman was pronounced dead after he was rushed to Mackay Memorial Hospital. The suspect, 50, was arrested by the military for taking pictures of the Hengshan Military Command Center in 2004 in accordance with the Military Stronghold And Fortress Terrain Act (要塞堡壘地帶法). But he fled after he was granted bail and had since been wanted by police. On Monday, Dai was arrested and taken under police escort in a car driven by Lai. Dai was not handcuffed nor was he searched before he was put in the backseat of the police car. When the car arrived at the police station, Dai took out a knife and stabbed Lai in a vain attempt to flee.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
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