MILITARY
India cemetery re-dedicated
A cemetery in northeastern India where hundreds of Republic of China (ROC) military personnel who died during World War II are buried was re-dedicated yesterday after completion of its renovation. Taiwanese Representative to India Philip Ong (翁文祺) and Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsiung Hsiang-tai (熊湘台) jointly officiated at the re-dedication ceremony in Ramgarh, Jharkhand state. More than 600 ROC officers and soldiers, who fought with Allied troops in World War II near India and northern Indochina, are buried in the cemetery. However, there are only 200-odd tombs, 40 of them marked, since most of the soldiers buried there were unknown. The cemetery was built in 1942 and was renovated this year, according to Chen Hsueh-liang (陳學良), an ROC expatriate in India who has been in charge of the cemetery since 2006. The defense ministry spent NT$7.58 million (US$252,660) for the renovations, which began in July this year.
CRIMES
Man convicted in food scare
The owner of a chemical firm was sentenced yesterday to 18 years in jail for his involvement in a plasticizer-tainted food scandal that rocked the nation earlier this year. The Changhua District Court handed down the jail term to Yu Shen Chemical Co owner Lai Chun-chieh (賴俊傑) for adding chemicals that are banned from food and beverage products. The judges gave Lai’s wife, Chien Ling-yuan (簡玲媛), 16 years in jail for her role as an accomplice in the adulteration of food-processing additives with industrial-use plasticizers. Chin Tung Co owner Pan Shu-lan (潘淑蘭) was given 12 years for supplying Lai with di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, one of the six plasticizers that were detected in food and beverage products during the crisis. The case can be appealed.
CRIMES
Jail for teen killer upheld
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 30-year sentence for a teenaged killer involved in two murders, including the high-profile shooting of alleged gang leader Weng Chi-nan (翁奇楠) in May last year. The ruling also upheld the Taiwan High Court’s decision that Liao Kuo-hao (廖國豪) should pay a fine of NT$1.2 million for his two crimes — illegal possession of firearms and murder. Liao was convicted of attempted murder in an attack on a restaurant owner in Taichung in 2009 and for killing Weng and his friend, Lai Jung-chen (賴榮振), at Weng’s office on May 28 last year. He turned himself in 90 days later. As Liao was only 17 years old when he killed Weng and Lai, he was given a combined 25 years in prison in the first trial on Jan. 19. In the second trial in July, the High Court gave him a harsher 30-year sentence, saying that besides murder, he had been in possession of an illegal weapon.
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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