■ CRIME
Tung Chia-ching released
The Taipei District Court yesterday extended the detention of Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG) chairman Gary Wang (王令麟) for another two months, but released EMG chief financial officer Tung Chia-ching (童家慶) on NT$6 million (US$193,548) bail. Wang and members of his family are suspected of embezzling NT$41.2 billion from EMG and the Rebar Asia Pacific Group. The prosecutors who indicted Wang recommended a 28-year sentence and a fine of NT$1 billion. Wang has been detained since June. Tung, who was indicted in the same case, faces a sentence of 16 years. He is barred from leaving the country or moving house and must report to his local police station every day.
■ POLITICS
Tibetans plan march
Tibetans and sympathetic groups, including the Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation and the Taiwan Friends of Tibet, plan to hold a parade in Taipei tomorrow to mark the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising -- when Tibetans took to the streets of Lhasa on March 10, 1959, to protest Chinese occupation. Tens of thousands of Tibetans were massacred by the Chinese army in the months following the uprising, while the Dalai Lama and between 70,000 and 80,000 Tibetans escaped across the Himalayas to exile in India. The theme of this year's parade will be condemnation of human rights abuses in China-ruled Tibet, where activists say Tibetans endure torture, arrest, forced prostitution and execution. The event will begin at 1:30pm at the Guangfu S. Road entrance of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
■ DEFENSE
Search for pilot continues
The air force said yesterday that the pilot of a missing F-16 could have been suffering from spatial disorientation before his jet fighter disappeared from radar screens. "Spatial disorientation can easily occur during a night flight," Yang Feng-sheng (楊鳳生), spokesman for the air force's 401st wing in Hualien, told a media conference yesterday. "When that happens, the pilot will become confused about direction." Major Ting Shih-pao's (丁世寶) F-16 disappeared during a routine night training exercise at approximately 7:16pm on Tuesday. The air force immediately launched a large-scale rescue mission focused on the aircraft's last recorded location. The navy dispatched several minesweepers to participate in the search yesterday. However, no sign of the plane or its pilot has been found. Yang said an initial investigation showed that Ting's F-16 performed an "abnormal" maneuver shortly before it disappeared.
■ TRANSPORT
Line to be electrified
The Railway Reconstruction Bureau said yesterday that it planned to electrify the railway section between Hualien and Taitung, a project which was approved by the Council of Economic Planning and Development last month. Bureau Deputy Director-General Chen Cheng-kai (陳正楷) said the section was about 155km in length and incorporated 30 stations. Currently, the single-track railway is used only by diesel-powered trains. Chen said the electrification of a new double-track railway on this section would allow for trains to operate at 130kph, up from 110kph, and reduce maximum traveling time to 35 minutes. The project has a budget of NT$15 billion (NT$483 million) and is scheduled to be completed within seven years, he said. It will involve the construction of four tunnels and the improvement of three bridges, Chen said.
■ SCIENCE
Physicist gets lofty award
Alex Chao (趙午), a physics professor and deputy head of the Department of Accelerator Research at Stanford University in the US, has been awarded the prestigious European Physical Society 2008 Accelerator Achievement Prize, Academia Sinica said yesterday. The award is conferred by the European Physical Society Accelerator Group, which will bestow the biannual honor on Chao at the European Particle Accelerator Conference in June. Chao, a Taiwan-trained physicist who received his bachelor's degree in physics from National Tsing Hua University in 1970, later studied in the US, where he currently resides. Chao was chosen for the award for his "many ground-breaking and fundamental contributions to accelerator physics and for the direct or indirect contribution to the design and performance of almost every major accelerator project, built or not built, over the past 30 years," the group said.
■ EDUCATION
Dutch scholarship offered
The Delta Foundation is offering NT$1.65 million (US$53,400) this year in scholarships to students who wish to study environmental protection in the Netherlands. Selected students will be offered NT$250,000 for a master's degree or NT$500,000 for a doctorate. Those who wish to apply must have a college degree or above from Taiwan, fluency in English (TOEFL 213 or above; or 5.5 on the IELTS) and a passion for environmental issues. They would also need to submit a 1,000-word essay on how they would utilize the degree to help environmental causes. The application deadline is May 15th.Visit www.neso-taipei.org.tw/Scholarship/Scholarship_Reg.aspx for more information.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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