POLITICS
Taro Aso to visit Taiwan
Japan’s former prime minister Taro Aso is to visit Taiwan from Monday to Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday in a news release. Aside from giving a keynote speech at the Ketagalan Forum on Tuesday, vice president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President William Lai (賴清德), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安). He is also to pay his respects at the resting place of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
SOCIETY
Illegal workers killed
Two Thai nationals killed in a car crash while working for a Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) subcontractor during Typhoon Khanun were illegally employed, officials said yesterday. The Taoyuan Department of Labor said that the two Thai nationals, who died along with two Taiwanese men when the car they were traveling in plunged 150m into a valley in Fusing District (復興) on Thursday, were undocumented migrant workers. The department added that two other Thai nationals injured in the accident were also working illegally and had entered Taiwan on tourist visas. The Taoyuan Labor Inspection Office is looking into how they were employed and would act according to law, officials said.
EDUCATION
Taiwanese students awarded
Taiwanese students won several medals at the 2023 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship in Orlando, Florida. Chen Bing-hong (陳秉鴻) won US$8,000 in the Microsoft Word (Office 2016) category. Chen, a student at Yi Ming Senior High School in Hsinchu, was among more than 190 competitors from 40 countries battling out at the Certiport-organized annual championships, which took place from Sunday to Wednesday. Wu Cheng-yan (吳承諺) of National Taipei University of Business finished second in a later version of Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 Apps and Office 2019), while Tsao Ching-chi (曹景棋), a student of New Taipei City-based Chihlee University of Technology, won a bronze medal in PowerPoint. Yuan Tung (遠彤) of Taipei City University of Science and Technology took 10th place in the Excel 2016 category.
SOCIETY
Family seeks compensation
The family of a 21-year-old student killed by an air-conditioning unit that fell 17 stories in New Taipei City has applied for state-funded restitution of NT$1.8 million (US$56,798), the Ministry of Justice said yesterday. A ministry official said that the Association for Victims Support had met with the family of the student, surnamed Huang (黃), on July 21 to help them apply for state-funded restitution under the Crime Victim Rights Protection Act (犯罪被害人權益保障法). According to the act, the surviving relatives of those who died as a result of being a victim of a crime are conditionally entitled to state-funded restitution of NT$1.8 million. The restitution would be paid to Huang’s family by the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office once it is approved by a review committee of the association’s New Taipei City branch toward the end of this month, the ministry said. Huang, a student at National Chengchi University, died on July 20 when she was waiting for a bus on a sidewalk near MRT Xinpu station in the city’s Banciao District (板橋), where she was struck on the head by an air-conditioning unit weighing about 30kg.
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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