A man who on Friday attacked a military police officer with a sword outside the Presidential Office Building told prosecutors that his main intention was to kill President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), according to a statement yesterday by the Taipei District Court.
The court said Lu Chun-yi (呂軍億) was clear about his plan to assassinate the president during questioning and that he therefore must be kept in custody.
“Tsai Ing-wen was my main target, but I was also prepared to attack anyone else if they tried to get in my way,” Lu told investigators, the court said.
Lu, 51, at about 10:15am on Friday managed to approach the heavily guarded Presidential Office Building from the intersection of Boai Road and Zhangsha Street, and struck the neck of a guard with a sword.
Investigators later determined that Lu had stolen the Japanese military-issue sword from the Armed Forces Museum on Guiyang Street by smashing a display case with a hammer.
Lu was overpowered by other guards before he could reach the Presidential Office Building. Police later found a People’s Republic of China flag in his bag.
The injured guard had been rushed to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital with a neck wound, but was in stable condition, the Presidential Office said on Friday.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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