■ DIPLOMACY
Ma to revisit allies
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is planning to visit Central America again next month, the Presidential Office said yesterday. A Presidential Office official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Ma was scheduled to visit Panama, Nicaragua and Honduras with transit stops in San Francisco on his way there and in Hawaii on his return. The main purpose of the trip is to attend the inauguration of Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli. Ma recently returned from the inauguration of Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes. The trip also took him to Belize and Guatemala. Ma canceled a meeting with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega after Ortega twice postponed the meeting, raising concerns over bilateral ties.
■ POLITICS
Yeh appointed vice minister
Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Deputy Minister Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) will succeed Oliver Yu (游芳來) as vice minister of transportation and communication, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The change will take effect in the middle of this month. Yu was transferred to replace Wu Min-yu (吳民佑) as chairman of Chunghwa Post on June 1 after Wu retired. The Executive Yuan said that Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) suggested the replacement and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) approved it yesterday. Temporarily transferred from the department of business administration at National Sun Yat-sen University, Yeh, a professor of business management, once served as a councilor at the Mainland Affairs Council and a consultant to the Straits Exchange Foundation.
■ DIPLOMACY
DPP protests office closures
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) for scheduling the closing of five representative offices abroad. “Closing a representative office is a signal of protest against a host country, but MOFA’s closure of overseas representative offices is like a game to them,” DPP caucus whip Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) told a press conference yesterday, adding that “representative offices are not convenience stores, to open or close as one wishes.” Taiwan’s offices in countries without diplomatic ties with Taiwan indicated they acknowledged Taiwan’s sovereignty, Lee said. The legislator said that MOFA should review why the five offices were inefficient and make improvements rather than close them. Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) announced on Friday the government would close five of its 121 representative offices to better utilize resources.
■ SOCIETY
Cold medicine causes crash
A bus driver’s use of cold medicine that made him drowsy was the apparent cause of a bus accident on Sunday night that left two people dead, Taipei Deputy Mayor Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) said yesterday. A breathalyser test found that Chen Chin-fa (陳進發), the driver of Metro Transit Co’s bus No. 270, was not under the influence of alcohol, said Wu as he met the families of the victims. At about 7:45pm on Sunday, the bus, allegedly traveling at high speed and snaking its way down Yanjiuyuan Road Sec 2, hit a woman, Chi Chi-hui (紀季徽), on a bike before ramming into a motorcycle rider, Liu Yueh-e (劉月娥), on the opposite side of the road. Police said Chi died at the scene, while Liu died later in hospital. The bus stopped after crashing into the garage of a private house.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
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