■ DIPLOMACY
New diplomats announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs last night announced four new ambassadorial appointments for positions in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Current ambassador to South African Richard Shih (石瑞琦) will now head the embassy in Gambia. Chen Chung (陳忠), the current representative to New Zealand, will be the new ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe. Leo Lee (李澄然) is expected to leave his post as the head of the ministry's Department of North American Affairs to become ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The new ambassador to Haiti will be Hsu Mien-sheng (徐勉生), who has held diplomatic posts in France, Senegal, and Angola. A ministry official said the four men were career diplomats who were ideal candidates to safeguard Taiwan's existing allies in the face of relentless pressure from China.
■ TRANSPORTATION
High-speed rail serves 20m
The accumulated passenger volume of the high-speed railway system reached the 20-million mark on Friday, a little more than one year after the service was launched, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp said yesterday. The system's passenger volume totaled 2,095,210 last month, setting a record single-month high, the company said in a statement. The company said passenger traffic has been increasing since trial operations began on Jan. 5 last year, topping the 5 million mark on May 28, the 10 million mark on Sept. 18 and the 15 million mark on Dec. 21. Carbon dioxide released by a high-speed train averages only 0.0267kg per passenger-kilometer, about one-quarter of the average 0.1kg released per passenger-kilometer by a small passenger car, it said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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