SOCIETY
Book fair opens Feb. 4
The 33rd Taipei International Book Exhibition is to open on Feb. 4 and run until Feb. 9 at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 1, organizers said yesterday. To meet this year’s theme, “Follow Your Fancy in Reading,” organizers are presenting a visual narrative created in a collaboration with illustrators and graphic designers, the exhibition’s Web site says. Ministry of Culture Department of Humanities and Publications head Yang Ting-chen (楊婷媜) said this year’s event is to have an Italian focus. More than 400 talks are scheduled for the exhibition and people can participate for free, it said. People aged 18 to 22 can use the ministry’s “culture point tokens” to enter the book fair, while children aged 13 to 15 would receive 600 culture points upon admittance, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from Taipei International Book Exhibition’s Web site
DEFENSE
Satellite no threat: ministry
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said a satellite launched by China that flew over Taiwan posed no threat given its altitude at the time. The ministry said in a news release that the satellite was launched at 4am yesterday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China’s Sichuan Province. The satellite flew over Taiwan, heading westward over the Pacific Ocean, it said. However, as the satellite flew beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, the ministry said the launch posed no threat to Taiwan. It added that it would continue to monitor threats and remain ready to respond to any that arise.
CRIME
Cop charged with sex abuse
A police officer in Taipei accused of sexually abusing his underage daughter was yesterday indicted on hundreds of sex-abuse charges. The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement that the officer, surnamed Cheng (鄭), was charged with 348 counts for having sex with his daughter over a seven-year period from 2010 to 2017. Cheng in May last year was released on NT$100,000 bail a month after his daughter reported the alleged abuse to the Taipei City Police Department. The National Police Agency suspended him from duty. Later yesterday, the department said that Cheng’s suspension would be re-evaluated based on the indictment and that he could be dismissed.
CRIME
Sentence raised after appeal
The Taiwan High Court yesterday raised the sentence of a man who was found guilty last year of sexually assaulting minors while teaching at a private preschool in Taipei to 28 years and eight months in prison. Mao Chun-shen (毛畯珅) was found guilty of nine counts of sexual assault by penetration, 203 counts of indecent assault and 14 counts of filming obscene images committed from 2021 to 2023, the court said in a news release. The cumulative sentences for the 226 criminal counts total 1,291 years, and Mao must serve a prison term of 28 years and eight months, it said. The former preschool teacher was originally handed a 28-year jail term by the Taipei District Court in August last year for 224 criminal counts totaling 1,252 years and six months, a ruling Mao appealed. High Court spokesman Wang Ping-hsia (王屏夏) said that after a review, a few adjustments were made to the case, including finding him guilty on one count of which he had originally been acquitted. Considering that Mao’s actions severely damaged the victims’ physical and mental health, as well as the trauma caused to their families, the High Court ruled to raise his jail sentence, which can still be appealed, Wang said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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