■ AVIATION
Luggage system fails
More than 100 pieces of luggage did not reach their destination on time because of a technical problem at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s baggage-handling system, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said yesterday. Director of the Taoyuan International Airport Office Lee Tsan-huang (李燦煌) said the system was purchased in 2000. The failure was the result of a broken part in the conveyor belt, he said. Lee said the airport quickly increased ground personnel to help handle luggage after the problem was reported at 8am, which delayed a flight to Shanghai. Meanwhile, some passengers on China Airlines (中華航空) and EVA Airways (長榮航空) flights were asked to pick up their luggage later this week. Normal operations resumed at about 10am, Lee said.
■ JOURNALISM
ATJ in financial crisis
With only NT$749 (US$22) in its bank account and unable to pay its two employees this month, the Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ) is now facing its severest crisis since its creation 13 years ago, the association said. ATJ secretary-general Liu Chia-yun (劉嘉韻) said annual operational costs were about NT$3 million (US$91,000), including the publication of the Eyewitness bimonthly magazine. However, the membership fee paid by its 300 members adds up to NT$300,000 — 30 percent of which has to be deposited into the ATJ’s journalist protection fund. National Taiwan University journalism professor Chang Chin-hua (張錦華) said the ATJ was the only journalist organization in the country, and that it often reminds journalists of ethics while serving as a defender of journalists’ rights against political interference. She called on the public to help the ATJ.
■ EDUCATION
Free essay-writing test
The Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, an organization funded by the Ministry of Education, will offer an online Mandarin essay-writing test with feedback free of charge, the committee said yesterday. People interested in taking the test will be required to type their essays using Mandarin phonetic symbols or Hanyu pinyin, the committee said. The test runs through the end of this month. More information is available www.sc-top.org.tw/index.php.
■ DIPLOMACY
Solomons official expelled
A senior Solomons government official on a training course in Taiwan has been sent home in disgrace after allegedly attacking three Taiwanese policemen, an official and a newspaper said yesterday. William Marau of the Solomon Islands foreign ministry is said to have attacked the officers when they intervened as he argued with an assistant in a Taipei grocery store on Nov. 16, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Marau was brought to a nearby police station in handcuffs, it said, adding that he apologized to the policemen the next day, claiming he was drunk. The official was fined by a Taipei district court and sent back to his country, the paper said. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official confirmed the report, but played down its significance. “The matter is finished. After all he apologized,” she said on condition of anonymity. The Solomon Islands are among 23 countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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