■ EDUCATION
Wu defends college plan
Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi (吳清基) yesterday defended a plan to provide fifth-year courses for university graduates, saying it would boost their employability and help meet the demands of the business and industrial sectors. Wu dismissed criticism that the program was designed to artificially lower the unemployment rate, which hit 5.3 percent last month and is expected to rise in the following months as new graduates flood the job market. He said the program is a long-term and far-sighted policy devised to meet the needs of the private sector. The ministry floated a “four-plus-one” initiative earlier this week that would allow universities to open one-year intensive courses for bachelor’s degree holders to gain technical knowledge that would enhance their chances of finding a job after graduation, especially in high-tech companies.
■ DEFENSE
Rescue to be MND’s remit
A bill aimed at officially listing disaster prevention and rescue as part of the military’s work cleared the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee yesterday. However, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) expressed concern that the change could undermine the power of the president as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as it would allow the premier to command the troops in disaster prevention and rescue operations. Vice Minister of National Defense Chao Shih-chang (趙世璋) said the scope of the premier’s authority in such situations would be clearly defined to ensure that it would not infringe on the president’s power. Chao added that disaster prevention and rescue had become part of the military’s core mission, alongside its duty to defend the country from foreign invasion. The proposed amendment to the National Defense Act (國防法) still has to be reviewed by the legislature.
■ FESTIVALS
Public invited to Santacruzan
The Taipei City Government invites the public to join the Filipino community in celebrating Santacruzan on Sunday. The annual festival, co-organized by Taipei City’s Department of Labor Affairs and St Christopher’s Church, will take place in front of the church and along Zhongshan N Road from 1:30pm to 4pm. Santacruzan is a commemoration of the quest in 324 by Queen Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor credited with promoting Christianity in the West, to find the cross on which Christ was crucified. The department organized the festival for the Filipino community to celebrate the holiday away from home, while hoping to allow residents in Taipei to have a better understanding of Philippine culture.
■ CRIME
Police probing officer’s death
Police are investigating a suicide involving an officer in Lujhou (蘆洲), Taipei County, and will release the results in a few days, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday. The 47-year-old victim, identified by his surname Chuang (莊), reportedly shot himself to death outside a police station on Wednesday night. Jiang said Chuang was having a discussion with the chief of the police station when he took out his gun and attempted to kill himself. The station chief was shot while trying to stop Chuang. When he went into the station to seek help, Chuang again fired his gun and killed himself, Jiang said. He said the ministry had ordered an investigation into reports that Chuang was in debt, a drug abuser and did not get along with his family.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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