Taipei police said they planned to question 41 people today as part of the investigation into protesters who stormed the Executive Yuan compound on March 23.
Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭), chief of the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Section, told a press conference yesterday that police have identified 94 students and members of the public who might have broken the law during the incident.
Thirty-six of those had been probed over their actions on the day, and 17 had been questioned later by police, while the remaining 41 have been notified to report to police today, Huang said.
Police identified the people by reviewing video footage and photographs taken during the incident, he said, adding that the people are being investigated for offenses including trespass, interference with public functions, destruction of property, infringing on personal liberty and contempt of authority.
Meanwhile, Huang rebutted a Chinese-language Apply Daily report yesterday that six police officers have been identified as having used violence against protesters and that they would be charged with criminal offenses.
“The matter is still under investigation and no decisions have been made,” Huang said.
The Apply Daily report said that Hwang Ming-chorng (黃銘崇), a researcher with the Institute of History and Philology at Academia Sinica, is considering filing a lawsuit against officers whom he accused of dragging him into a huddle and beating him after he expressed concern over the safety of students during the eviction.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling