TRANSPORTATION
Alishan train to resume
The Alishan Forest Railway in Chiayi County is to resume full operations on Saturday, 15 years after part of the line was closed due to damage by Typhoon Morakot, the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office said. Eighty-five tickets for the first train on Saturday were sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale at 2pm yesterday, when online bookings for tickets from that day to July 16 started, office deputy director Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. All tickets for direct services from Chiayi Station to Alishan Station from Saturday to Wednesday next week were also snapped up within 20 minutes, Chou said. Following the completion of the new No. 42 tunnel, the railway is to reopen with a new timetable and four trains daily, he said. The full fare for a one-way journey from Chiayi to Alishan is NT$600. Ticket prices are unchanged, but fares might be adjusted after nine newly purchased locomotives and 48 cars go into service in the second half of next year, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office
MILITARY
PLA planes, ships detected
Nineteen Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and vessels were detected in the airspace and waters around Taiwan in the 24-hour period starting at 6am on Monday, including aircraft flying as close as 47 nautical miles (87km) from Keelung, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. Thirteen Chinese military aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity, of which 10 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension, entering the nation’s air defense identification zone, flight information released by the ministry showed. Six PLA vessels were detected in waters near Taiwan during the same 24-hour period, the information showed. The ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation and had deployed combat air patrol aircraft, coastal missile systems and navy vessels in response.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Marshallese minister arrives
Joe Bejang, the education, sports and training minister of the Marshall Islands, arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a five-day stay, during which he is to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on expanded cooperation. The agreement is to cover enhanced collaboration between the two nations on education and sports, and expanded exchanges on Austronesian cultural research, language teacher training and volunteer dispatching, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Bejang is also to meet with Marshallese students, as well as visit Ming Chuan University, the National Center for Traditional Arts and the National Human Rights Museum, the ministry said. The visit is Bejang’s first to Taiwan since he assumed his post in January as part of a new government.
LEISURE
Swim event expanded
The Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival in September is to accept 25,000 participants in groups of at least five this year, the Puli Four-Season Swimming Association, which organizes the event, said yesterday. As registration for last year’s event filled up in three days, the association has increased the participation cap to 25,000, it said, adding that 24,636 swan in last year’s event. Registrations open next month, it said. The Sept. 15 event is scheduled for two days before Mid-Autumn Festival, the Nantou County Government said. As Mid-Autumn Festival is on a Tuesday this year and the day before is a regular work day, the Sunday event should not interfere with holiday travel, it said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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