TRANSPORTATION
‘Road smoking’ fines start
People who smoke while driving or riding a motorcycle may be fined NT$600 beginning today, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The fine is to be applied when a complaint is filed against a motorist for smoking and potentially endangering public safety. Smoking while driving or riding a motorcycle endangers the safety of other road users because cigarette butts or ashes can fly in the wind and burn or affect other road users, and smoke can also affect motorists’ ability to see, the ministry said. In principle, the law has set the range of the potentially dangerous effects of cigarette smoking at 3.5m, but if people who file complaints can prove they were affected beyond this distance, the smoking motorists would be fined, it said.
TRANSPORTATION
THSRC details new service
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THRSC) yesterday said that the introduction of three new stations on its transportation route later this year will not slow down train services, since a new service is to be added. At a stockholders’ meeting, THSRC chief executive Jeng Kuang-yeun (鄭光遠) said that when the stations in Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin counties are opened on Dec. 1, the company would start a new service between Taipei and Kaohsiung, with stops at all stations on the route, including the new ones. That route would take 138 minutes, while existing express and regular trains would continue to operate, taking 96 and 120 minutes respectively between Taipei and Kaohsiung, he said. The express usually makes two stops along the way, in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) and Taichung, while the regular service stops at all six stations. With the introduction of a third service operating at least one train per hour, trains would stop at all nine stations, Jeng said.
TRANSPORTATION
NCKU touts eco two-seater
National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) yesterday unveiled the nation’s first home-grown electric vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells and lithium batteries. The university said it has applied for patent protection and is prepared to transfer the technology to a vehicle manufacturer and bring the product to the market. According to Lai Wei-hsiang (賴維祥), director of NCKU’s Advanced Propulsion and Power System Research Center, lithium batteries can provide high power output, while hydrogen-powered fuel cells can supplement power and supply stable electricity. He said the vehicle has a range of 150km and does not generate any carbon emissions. Europe, the US and Japan have launched fuel cell electric vehicles on the market, but while those are four-seat models, NCKU’s offering is a two-seater.
SOCIETY
Equality march on Saturday
The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights on Monday said that it would hold a protest march on Saturday to fight for marriage equality. The alliance decided to hold the march after the US Supreme Court on Friday ruled that same-sex marriage was legal. On Saturday, the protesters plan to march to the headquarters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei to demand that the parties include a marriage equality bill in the final session of this legislature, the alliance said. The alliance said it would not rule out taking more drastic action if the move fails.
‘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
RSS