■POLITICS
DPP delays nominations
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced yesterday that it would be delaying the release of its mayoral nominations for the year-end special municipality elections, from May 19 to May 26. The move has increased speculation that the party, while set to nominate incumbent Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) to represent the party in Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan, has been unable to settle on a workable strategy for Sinbei City and Greater Taichung. DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) yesterday confirmed that the delay is partly because of the need to conduct more polls in the two cities.
■TRADE
Firms fined for Iran exports
The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it had fined two local firms, Zohra International Development Co and Triple Eagle Forwarding, for exporting restricted equipment to Iran and then trying to cover it up. The firms shipped tunnel boring machines, considered a “high-tech strategic” item, to Iran last year without obtaining permits and lied by saying they were going to the United Arab Emirates, the prosecutors’ office said. Prosecutors decided to suspend charges of violating trade laws as the defendants “confessed and showed deep remorse,” a statement said. They were instead fined a combined NT$320,000 (US$10,000). Iran is the subject of UN sanctions intended to control what the country can buy on the international market because of concerns in the West that it is developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
■TRANSPORTATION
Dangerous roads named
Zhongxiao E Road Sec 4, Minquan E Road and Renai Road are among the most dangerous roads for pedestrians in Taipei City, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor said yesterday, urging the city government to take more measures to ensure the city’s road safety. A total of 4,387 accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles have occurred on pedestrian crossings in Taipei since 2006, with 48 pedestrians dying from the incidents, according to statistics from Taipei City Police Department’s Traffic division. DPP Taipei City Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) yesterday also said Zhonghua Road, Chengde Road, Nanjing E Road and Xinyi Road were among the top eight dangerous roads for pedestrians.
■POLITICS
Nokia site includes Taiwan
Following complaints lodged by Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers, the Web site Forum Nokia has corrected its Web design by incorporating Taiwan in its list of countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. The change came after protests by DPP lawmakers and the National Communication Commission when it was found that Taiwanese users were forced to choose China as their country when they want to download software from the Forum Nokia Web site because Taiwan was not listed among the countries on its page. The Web site also only offered text in simplified Chinese characters. After MOFA forwarded the complaints to Finnish cellphone maker’s headquarters, Forum Nokia adjusted the design by incorporating Taiwan in the list and directing users registered as Taiwanese nationals to an English version of the Web site, the ministry said. According to MOFA, the Web site was not operated by Nokia.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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