JUSTICE
Prosecutor heads to China
Prosecutor General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) is to visit China for the first time this week, seeking Beijing’s help to extradite fugitives under a landmark judicial cooperation pact, a report said yesterday. Huang is scheduled to leave for Beijing on Wednesday, the Chinese-language China Times said on its Web site. Huang is expected to ask Chinese authorities to send back to Taiwan a number of fugitives who are on Taiwan’s most-wanted list, it said. Huang will also visit courts and the justice ministry on his trip to Beijing, it said. Taipei and Beijing signed a judicial cooperation agreement in April 2009 as part of efforts to prevent criminals from cashing in on the ever-closer economic ties between the two sides.
POLITICS
Ma dismisses photo report
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) dismissed a local media report yesterday that he had posed for photographs for his re-election campaign with Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who pundits say will emerge as Ma’s running mate. “There is no related plan,” Ma said when asked by reporters at an event about the -Chinese--language Apple Daily report. A spokeswoman for Ma’s re-election campaign office, which is scheduled to open on Sunday, said Ma in fact had several photos taken related to future campaign activities, but Wu was not in any of them. Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) announced last week that he had decided not to join Ma as his running mate in next year’s presidential election to allow for the transition to a new generation, immediately setting off speculation that Wu would be Ma’s choice. Ma’s campaign office will be headed by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) and several senior KMT members and former government officials.
SCIENCE
Save that squid skin
Squid skin is normally thrown away, but the Fisheries Research Institute announced recently that it has found a way to use it to produce functional peptides that can be sold as healthcare products or supplements. The institute under the Council of Agriculture said that in tests, functional peptides made from squid skin showed positive effects in slowing down the aging process and easing blood pressure. It said the peptides had not only proved safe, but also activated neuron cells to help improve learning and reduce memory loss associated with aging. Squid skin is mainly used as feed or simply thrown away and is generally considered to be an unusable marine resource, meaning it is readily available. The institute said that for every 150,000 tonnes of squid, there are 15,000 tonnes of skin.
INTERNET
Spam swamps government
The Executive Yuan is regularly swamped with more than 20,000 spam e-mails each day, an information management office under the Cabinet said. After screening, between 4,000 and 5,000 e-mails each month are found to contain malicious files, the office said last week. Would-be hackers designed the e-mails to paralyze the Executive Yuan’s Web site or to steal personal information from staff who click on the links or open attachments, the office said. The Information Management Office of the -Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said its Web site often came under attack and that hackers were constantly updating their methods.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
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