■ POLITICS
MOFA touts youth diplomats
Ex-legislator indicted
Taipei District prosecutors yesterday indicted former independent legislator Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) and others over his alleged involvement in a land digging and construction scandal. Prosecutors charged Lo and 10 other businessmen from construction and investment companies with violating the Water and Land Preservation Act (水土保持法). Lo allegedly ordered workers to dig up land in a mountainous area in Xindian (新店), Taipei County, over five or six years and flatten hills to create 15 baseball fields. Lo was suspected of illegally selling the land and applying with the local government to build apartments, prosecutors said. Prosecutors opened an investigation after receiving reports from informants last September. They questioned Lo and other witnesses and searched his residence. He is currently barred from leaving the country.
■ TOURISM
Alishan visits increase
The Alishan Forest Recreation Park, founded more than 30 years ago, is expecting its millionth visitor of this year very soon, the Forestry Bureau said yesterday. Since its opening in 1976, the park has attracted between 600,000 and 994,000 visitors per year, but has never attracted more than 1 million in a single year. Forestry Bureau officials said the bureau has prepared prizes for the millionth visitor, as well as for the following 10 groups. Visitor numbers to the park have been boosted by Chinese tourists, who have made up to 10,000 visits to the park each day since restrictions on Chinese tourist visits to Taiwan were lifted last year.
■ MILITARY
Ministry cancels car perk
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has stopped assigning chauffeured vehicles to retired generals on a regular basis, military spokesman Yu Sy-tue (虞思祖) said yesterday, in response to complaints from the Control Yuan. Since June 30, the ministry has recalled all vehicles and chauffeurs that were previously assigned to the generals, Yu said. The generals are no longer on active duty but serve as advisers to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and are reserve generals who can be called upon to serve in emergencies, including in times of war. According to the Control Yuan’s investigation, two defense ministry vehicles were assigned on a long-term basis to serve five such generals. Their family members also used the cars, the investigation had found. This violated a rule forbidding cars being used for transporting individuals other than officials holding top administrative positions, the Control Yuan said. Yu said yesterday the MND has already corrected the mistake, adding that from July 1, the vehicles have been reassigned.
■ ANIMALS
Trapped husky rescued
A husky trapped on the roof of a building for several days has been rescued and is awaiting adoption, a spokesman for Animal Rescue Team Taiwan said yesterday in Kaohsiung, urging dog owners not to abandon their animals. The dog was seen on Saturday on top of a corrugated steel structure near the Guanyinshan Scenic Area in Kaohsiung County by a passerby who called for help online, alerting the team that eventually rescued the three-year-old dog four days later. Ni Chao-cheng (倪兆成), who led the rescue team, said the 18kg dog was suffering from dehydration and low blood sugar but recovered well after being given a nutrient solution by a vet. Anyone interested in adopting the husky should contact the rescue team.
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
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
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
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