■ Crime
PFP legislators indicted
Four People First Party legislators were indicted by Taipei prosecutors yesterday for allegedly leading the unruly crowd that gathered outside the Central Election Commission on March 26. According to the indictment, the four legislators -- Chiu Yi (邱毅), Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國), Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官) -- led a group of protesters that smashed the commission building's glass doors and attempted to stop commission employees from posting the official results of the March 20 presidential election on its bulletin board. The police attempted to disperse the crowd because the protest was not legal. According to witnesses' and police officers' testimony, the four legislators ignored the police's orders. Chiu is alleged to have shouted through a loudspeaker: "Beat [President] Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)! Beat the commission!" The four legislators told prosecutors that they were not aware of the police's efforts to disperse the protesters -- an argument the prosecutors rejected because the protests were illegal in the first place. Chiu, Feng, Lee and Lin were indicted on charges of violating the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法). Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for the legislators.
■ Diplomacy
Close S Korea ties praised
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday he looks forward to seeing relations between Taiwan and South Korea grow. Chen made the remarks while meeting with a delegation of academics and business executives from South Korea, headed by South Korean National Assemblyman Lew Jyun-sung. Noting that Taiwan is now South Korea's fifth-largest trading partner, Chen said there is still ample room for growth in bilateral trade and economic cooperation. South Korea is Taiwan's fourth-largest source of imports and sixth-largest export market. Chen said he hopes that bilateral trade and investment will continue expanding in the years ahead. Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, Chen said Taiwan and South Korea have enjoyed longstanding friendship.
■ Weather
Typhoon strengthens
Typhoon Dianmu -- the sixth typhoon reported in the Pacific this year -- had gained strength and been upgraded to a strong typhoon, although it was not expected to directly affect the country, the Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday. Dianmu was centered some 1,800km southeast of Taiwan at 8am yesterday, moving in a north-northwesterly direction at a speed of 17km per hour, meteorologists said. With a radius of 180km and packing maximum sustained winds of up to 130km per hour, Dianmu was not expected to directly affect this country because it was expected to shift to a northwesterly course and eventually sweep toward Japan, the bureau reported.
■ Society
Wheelchair pageant planned
The Eden Social Welfare Foundation opened registration for their first annual Wheelchair Beauty Competition yesterday. Registration will close on June 30. Women around the nation between 18 and 40 are invited to enter the contest -- but only if they suffer from a handicap. "The contest is meant to encourage a breaking of beauty stereotypes," said organizer Carol Lu (呂惠萱). "Confidence, kindness and personality should also be criteria for a `beautiful woman.'"
‘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
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
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
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
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