■ 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.
‘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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