■ POLITICS
Chen lists files as classified
The Presidential Office informed the Taipei District Court yesterday through an official document issued by secretary-general Ye Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had officially listed documents relevant to the state allowance fund case as classified files and asked for the return of the files. The Court is yet to make a decision on whether to return the files, but asked the prosecutors and defendants to express their opinions. Chen made a similar request in June. However, the Court has not delivered a ruling on the request. The presidential Office made the request based on the Council of Grand Justices' constitutional interpretation this June which stated the president has the authority to define what constitutes a national secret.
■ SOCIETY
Taipei opens up to big bikes
Motorcycles with an engine capacity of 550cc or larger will be permitted on 10 expressways in the city from November, the Taipei City Government said yesterday. The 10 expressways include Tiding and Huandong boulevards, the Shui-Yuan, Huanhe N and S, Xinyi and Zhoumei expressways, and the Jianguo, Civil Boulevard, Keelung Road and Xinsheng N Road overpasses. Traffic police said that they would clamp down on motorcyclists who violate traffic rules.
■ POLITICS
Anti-graft squad reconvenes
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh's (施明德) anti-corruption campaign will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its sit-in protests with a gathering at Ketagalan Boulevard tomorrow. The gathering, meant to show continued opposition to corruption and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), will begin at 6pm and last until midnight, campaign spokesman Jerry Fan (范可欽) said. It will feature a 40m-long totem pole made with candles, and Shih is scheduled to deliver a speech. Shih, who was the DPP chairman from 1994 to 1996 before leaving the party in 2000, launched the anti-graft campaign on Sept. 9 last year with a sit-in in front of the Presidential Office to call on Chen to step down.
■ SOCIETY
Nation ranked 49th-largest
Taiwan has the 49th-largest national population in the world, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) on Thursday quoted a US demography source as saying. Figures publicized by the US Population Reference Bureau last month estimates Taiwan's population at 22.9 million this year, up 0.3 percent or 77,000 people year-on-year. CEPD officials forecast the nation's total population would shrink to 18.9 million by 2050 as a result of drastic social changes. They predict the population will reach its apex in 2019 with 23.3 million people, before gradually declining to 18.9 million by 2050.
■ CRIME
Two get bail in Rebar trial
Two executives who had been detained since July for suspected involvement in the Rebar Asia Pacific Group embezzlement case were yesterday released on bail, Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩) said. Yi-feng Asset Management co-chairman Lawrence Wang (王令興) and general manager Lee Teh-yang (李德洋) were released on bail of NT$5 million and NT$1 million respectively. Liu said the court ruled it unnecessary to keep Wang and Lee in detention at the current stage of the trial, but prohibited them from leaving the country.
Restaurants in New Taipei City, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to be included in the Michelin Guide’s review for the first time this year, alongside existing entries from Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, the France-based culinary publication said yesterday. This year’s edition of the Michelin Guide Taiwan is to be unveiled on Aug. 19 in Taipei. In addition to the coveted star ratings, Michelin Taiwan would announce its “Bib Gourmand” selections — a distinction awarded to establishments offering high-quality food at moderate prices — on Aug. 12. This year’s Bib Gourmand list would also feature restaurants in New Taipei City, Hsinchu
A firefighter yesterday died after falling into New Taipei City's Xindian River when a rescue dinghy capsized during a search mission for a man who was later found dead. The New Taipei City Fire Department said that it received a report at 4:12pm that a 50-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), had fallen into the river. A 32-year-old firefighter, surnamed Wu (吳), was among the rescuers deployed to look for Chen, the fire department said, adding that he and five other rescue personnel were in the dinghy when it capsized. Wu had no vital signs after being pulled from the water to the
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
RSS