■ Foreign affairs
Shady funding denied
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied yesterday it had given funds to former Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman for his party's election campaigns. A Nicaraguan investigator said in a press conference Thursday that Aleman's ruling Constitutionalist Liberal Party falsely reported its campaign funds in the country's 2001 election. The party reported US$5.1 million of campaign funds, but the investigator said evidence showed the party has actually garnered around US$35 million. The investigator said US$24 million of the party's unreported campaign funds are directly linked to Taiwan's donations. In response, ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said the ministry's aid to Nicaragua is for the government and its people rather than any individual.
■ Trade
Sanctions for Iran sales
A local firm has been sanctioned by the US for violating an embargo against Iran by selling it items forbidden by the US, the State Department reported Friday. Adam Ereli, the deputy spokesman for the State Department, said US intelligence shows that the Goodly Industry Company of Taiwan, along with 12 other firms, have since Jan. 1, 1999 sold goods or technology to Iran that could be used for the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. These firms have violated US legislation enacted in 2000 and have thereby been deprived of the right to deal with the US government for two years, Ereli said. Among the 13 offenders, five are Chinese firms. Goodly is believed to be the first Taiwan firm sanctioned under the act.
■ Development
Kaohsiung group tours Europe
A delegation from Kaohsiung has embarked on a European tour to obtain information about urban development with a view to boosting Kaohsiung's development. The 25-member delegation, headed by Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lin Yun-chien (林永堅), arrived in Rome April 1, where they were received by Rome Deputy Mayor Mariapia Garavaglia. The two sides exchanged opinions on their urban development experiences. Prior to their visit to Rome, the delegation had also visited London, Bonn and Barcelona to absorb experiences of urban development in those cities that could be applied to development in Kaohsiung.
■ Weather
Snow and hail fall
A strong convection current not only brought torrential rain to most of the country yesterday but also brought snow to Hohuanshan and hail to Yushan in central Taiwan, a very unusual occurrence for April, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). Snowy season on the 3,416m Hohuanshan usually ends in February, but the humidity from a cold front the previous day prompted a rare spring snowfall that lasted for nearly an hour and covered the mountain with 2cm of snow, according to the CWB. Weather forecasters attributed the snow to the strong convection current that led to there being clouds as high as 5,000 or 6,000m. Meanwhile, Yushan -- the nation's highest mountain -- had a hail shower.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS