AVIATION
Chinese drone delays flights
A Chinese drone was on Tuesday morning detected for the first time near Matsu Nangan Airport in Lienchiang County and disrupted two flights, airport director Weng Ting-huang (翁丁煌) said. The army’s Matsu Defense Command notified the control tower that a Chinese drone was seen 5 nautical miles (9.3km) from the airport at about 9am, Weng said. The tower immediately notified a UNI Air aircraft approaching the airport of the drone’s presence, delaying its landing. The drone hovered near the airport for about 20 minutes before it left, after which the UNI Air plane was approved for landing, 30 minutes behind schedule. A second UNI Air flight scheduled to depart later was also delayed, Weng said. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) has set up drone detection systems at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Kaohsiung International Airport, CAA Deputy Director-General Lin Jiunn-liang (林俊良) said. No such system has been installed at Lienchiang’s airports, but the current systems would still have difficulty detecting drones 10km away, he said.
SOCIETY
Rare snake caught for venom
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Ministry of Agriculture officials recovered a hundred-pace snake from a home in Taitung’s Yanping Township (延平), a CDC official said yesterday. The Deinagkistrodon acutus, which is listed as a threatened species, is a venomous snake found in mountainous parts of eastern and southern Taiwan. After receiving a report of the snake yesterday morning, the CDC sent officials to recover it and bring it to a lab in Taipei to produce antivenom, said snake expert Tsai Wei-yi (蔡緯毅), who caught the animal. “If you look closely, you can see that its nose has been injured. It lunged at me when I caught it, but only as a warning,” he said. “Usually a hundred-pacer will not try to bite you, unless it feels threatened.” The CDC keeps venomous snakes at its lab for up to 10 years, and they are replaced as they age, CDC official Chiang Wen-che (江玟徹) said, adding that it has four hundred-pacers in its inventory. “This species is relatively rare. It has already been seven years since I last made the trip to Taitung to retrieve” one, he said. Despite the snake’s rarity, the CDC must have antivenom on hand at all times, he said, adding that venom is taken from the snake twice a year.
JUDICIARY
Court to look at injunctions
The Constitutional Court is on Wednesday next week to hold a preparatory hearing about injunction applications seeking to pause enforcement of government oversight laws that went into effect on Wednesday last week, the Judicial Yuan said on Tuesday. The Judicial Yuan, which oversees the Constitutional Court, said that stakeholders would be summoned to the court to present their views. They include the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus, President William Lai (賴清德) and the Executive Yuan. All parties submitted injunction applications and petitioned the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the amendments last week. Representatives from the Legislative Yuan are also expected to be summoned, the Judicial Yuan said. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party, which together form a majority in the legislature, passed the amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code on May 28. The court has agreed to review the DPP caucus’ petition against the legislation, but has not yet decided on those filed by the Executive Yuan and the president.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
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