SOCIETY
Students shine at Robofest
Students from Taiwan won four categories at the Robofest World Championship in the US. They were competing against teams that qualified for the event from regional competitions in 21 other countries and nine US states. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office said on Facebook yesterday said that Taiwanese students won the most popular award in the Exhibition Junior category, and first place in the Exhibition Senior and Game Senior categories. They also won the Junior Bottle Sumo category, in which teams of one robot try to push each other or a bottle off a platform. Twelve Taiwanese teams, comprising nearly 50 students from elementary school upward, participated in the competition at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago
POLITICS
Tsai awards 13 top officials
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday conferred medals on Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and 12 other officials at the Presidential Office, in recognition of their hard work, which she said had left a better Taiwan for the world. Tsai, set to complete her second presidential term on Monday next week, awarded Lai, the president-elect, the Order of Dr Sun Yat-sen with Grand Cordon and the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon. Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) was awarded the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon. Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Presidential Office Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Examination Yuan Secretary-General Liu Chien-sin (劉建忻) were honored with the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon. Vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) and Stanley Kao (高碩泰), a former top envoy to the US, were among those who received the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago
CRIME
Triple murder suspect held
The New Taipei District Court yesterday approved a request by prosecutors to detain and hold incommunicado a man suspected of murdering his wife, stepson and mother-in-law in the city’s Sanchong District (三重). The 24-year-old suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was detained due to the severity of the case and the risk that he could try to flee or destroy evidence. Chang was arrested in Taichung on Sunday after his 30-year-old wife, surnamed Chen (陳), her 69-year-old mother, surnamed Liu (劉), and his three-year-old stepson were found dead at a residence on Saturday night, police said. A woman identified as Liu’s oldest daughter said she was unable to contact her mother for several days, police said. Police said Chang admitted during questioning that he had murdered them over a financial dispute.
SOCIETY
Indonesians wed en masse
Twenty-nine Indonesian couples on Sunday took part in a mass wedding event in Taipei that was held to reduce the number of unregistered marriages among Indonesians in Taiwan. After attending a ceremony of about 20 minutes featuring readings from the Koran, each couple spent 15 minutes processing documents before receiving an official marriage certificate issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs. Sunday’s event was the third mass wedding event organized by the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei since the beginning of last year.
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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