Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former Presidential Office secretary-general Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) were found not guilty by the Taipei District Court yesterday of using fraudulent receipts to claim state affairs funds during their stint in the Presidential Office.
The Taipei District Court said that given their positions in the government, Lu and Yu were busy with public affairs and left using receipts to claim fund reimbursements to their aides.
No evidence had been provided that showed Lu and Yu knew about reimbursements from the fund, the court said.
Meanwhile, in a separate case in which Lu, Yu and former minister of foreign affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) were charged with using fraudulent receipts to claim special allowance funds, the court yesterday also found them not guilty.
The district court said that because the legislature last year approved a law under which officials cannot be prosecuted for suspicious reimbursements from special allowance funds that took place before Dec. 31, 2006, the charges against the three had been dropped.
However, the court did find four of Lu’s aides and two of Yu’s aides guilty of forgery. The six were granted probation.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain