CRIME
Prosecutor indicted
A prosecutor was indicted yesterday on corruption charges for allegedly taking bribes to cover up gambling businesses, in the latest scandal to hit the nation’s judiciary. Chen Yu-chen (陳玉珍), a mid-level staff member of the High Prosecutors’ Office, was charged with accepting nearly NT$24 million (US$827,000) from a gambling business operator over a period of six years, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) said. She allegedly took money from the businessman in return for services including pressuring other prosecutors to stop investigating him, SID said. “We demand the most severe punishment for Chen as she has gravely damaged the reputation of prosecutors and dealt a deep blow to public confidence in the judiciary,” the SID statement said.
TRAVEL
Airline to fly to Urumqi
China Southern Airlines announced yesterday that its charter service between the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi and Taiwan is set to be launched on Tuesday. The carrier said that three charter planes will depart from Kaohsiung Airport on March 12, March 19 and March 26 for the approximately 6.5-hour flight to the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The carrier is also expected to launch regular flight services between Urumqi and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport next month, with flights every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Meanwhile, China Airlines, eyeing business and tourism opportunities in Xinjiang, is planning to offer flights on the Taoyuan-Urumqi route from late June. Urumqi is among eight new destinations for cross-strait flights agreed upon by Taiwan and China in December last year. The other seven are Hohhot and Hailar in Inner Mongolia, Yinchuan in Ningxia Province, Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, Xining in Qinghai Province, Lijiang in Yunnan Province and Weihai in Shandong Province.
ENVIRONMENT
Low-carbon forums planned
Taiwan and Germany will jointly launch low-carbon cities forums in Taiwan next week to facilitate interaction between experts from both nations. One forum will be held in Taipei on Tuesday and another in Greater Tainan on Thursday, with support from Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency, said the German Institute Taipei, which is co-organizing the forums with the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy. The forums will allow experts, academics and government officials involved in the development of low-carbon cities and buildings to interact with each other, the office said, adding that Germany can offer its experience in building low-carbon cities.
HEALTH
FDA says no toxic masks
The Department of Health’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought to allay fears on Thursday following reports of Chinese toxin-containing facial masks. According to the FDA, the four types of facial masks that were found to contain chemicals banned in cosmetics are not available in Taiwan, adding that it had increased its oversight measures to ensure the products do not enter the country. The FDA warned consumers about purchasing the products online or in China. The Chinese food and drug administration found the masks contained acrylamide and clobetasol propionate. The former can cause skin irritation and neurological damage can result from long-term exposure. Clobetasol propionate is only approved for medical use and has not been approved for use in cosmetics in Taiwan.
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