DIPLOMACY
You Si-kun to travel to US
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) is to travel to the US tomorrow to speak at a summit on religious freedom and attend the US National Prayer Breakfast. A person with knowledge of the speaker’s itinerary said he would deliver a speech on Wednesday at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington. He is also to attend Thursday’s prayer breakfast — an annual gathering of political and religious leaders in Washington. Early on Friday he would fly back from New York, the source said on condition of anonymity. He was originally supposed to stay in the US for nine days, but the speaker’s schedule was condensed, as he is to attend the swearing in of new Cabinet members and the legislature’s review of a proposal to distribute last year’s surplus tax revenue to the public. The Legislative Yuan’s new session is to begin on Wednesday.
CRIME
Bullets found in man’s bag
An American transiting at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport en route to the Philippines was arrested on Thursday after customs officials found 50 undeclared .22 caliber bullets in his checked baggage. Police said an X-ray scanner detected the bullets. The suspect, 75, had been referred to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office, as he might have contravened the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例), they said. The man, who was traveling from San Francisco to Cebu to visit his son, said he unintentionally left the bullets in his backpack after a hunting trip. The Aviation Police Bureau said prosecutors would investigate the case, but they were unlikely to press charges if the man’s story turns out to be true.
CULTURE
Latern fest to open in Taipei
The Taiwan Lantern Festival is to be held at four sites in Taipei from Sunday to Feb. 19. The Taipei City Government, which jointly organizes the event with the Tourism Bureau, said shuttle bus services would connect the four sites: Xinyi District (信義), Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Taipei City Hall plaza. Bus tickets would cost NT$5 per journey, it said. The buses would connect Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system’s Red Line to the Blue and Green lines. Extra MRT services would be offered on the Red and Blue lines from Wednesday, as roadside parking would not be allowed near the venues, it said. The hourly rate at public parking lots near the venues would be increased to NT$60, the city government said.
CULTURE
Ting Chiang dies aged 86
Award winning TV and movie actor Ting Chiang (丁強) died on Friday at the age of 86. Ting had been recovering at home from a minor stroke, his agent said. However, he fell at home before the Lunar New Year holiday and was admitted to hospital, where his condition deteriorated quickly, the agent said, adding that Ting’s widow, veteran actress Li Hsuan (李璇), consented to a do-not-resuscitate order. As actors, Ting and Li last shared the screen in 2021 in the award-winning television drama Tears on Fire (火神的眼淚), in which they played husband and wife. Ting was nominated for the Golden Bell Award for Best Leading Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film in 2001, 2007 and 2010, winning the prize in 2001 for the miniseries Remember, Forget (記住忘了).
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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