■ Politics
Anti-Chen rally in New York
More than 200 Taiwanese-Americans on Friday denounced the re-election of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), using the term "stolen presidency." The group held a protest near UN headquarters in New York, holding banners and posters that called for an inquiry into the assassination attempt against Chen and his running mate Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on the eve of the election. Chen's opponents accused him of staging the shooting in order to gain sympathy from voters. A statement handed out by the protesters said that the election was "unfair and anti-democratic." The demonstrators, who waved Taiwanese and US flags, held banners that said, "Taiwan Fraud Election," "Stolen Presidency in Taiwan" and "Liar, Liar, Liar A-bian (阿扁)." The lunch-hour protest ended without incident. The demonstrators claimed that more than 330,000 "invalid ballots" had been discovered since the recount began.
■ Diplomacy
US state backs WHA bid
The New York State Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in support of Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, according to the head of a Taiwanese-American group. The resolution, which was passed Wednesday, recognizes contributions made by Taiwanese-Americans to the US, and recognizes their efforts to promote Taiwan's bid to join the WHA as an observer, said Wu Ming-kee, president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs. Copies of the resolution were sent to US President George W. Bush, the US Department of Health and Human Services and WHO headquarters in Geneva. The resolution was initiated by New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and co-signed by New York State Assembly members Richard Gottfried, Barry Grodenchik, Catherine Nolan and Earlene Hooper, Wu said.
■ Hakka affairs
League established
During an annual conference on Hakka college organizations, the establishment of the National Collegiate Hakka League (全國大學客家聯合會) was announced. The league aims to encourage exchanges of Hakka culture among universities and to plan intercollegiate Hakka events. More specifically, league representatives said that the league has three main goals: to encourage Hakka youth to embrace their heritage and introduce Hakka culture to non-Hakka people; to establish a forum for discussion of Hakka issues among colleges; and to pool the resources of Hakka associations and groups in universities nationwide. The founding of the league is the result of months of planning, research and consultation. The league is made up of students from National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University, National Chengchi University and Chinese Culture University, and encourages individuals with and without Hakka heritage to become members.
■ Earthquake
Temblor rattles Ilan
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale rocked northeastern Taiwan yesterday. No damage was reported. Central Weather Bureau officials said the epicenter of the quake was 18.8km east-northeast of the Ilan seismic station in Ilan County and originated 91.7km below the earth's surface. The quake, which occurred at 1:07pm, had an intensity of 3.0 in Newdou, Ilan County and Shihtang, Miaoli County; 2.0 in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Hualien counties; and 1.0 in Taipei City and Changhua.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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