MILITARY
Kinmen drills announced
The Kinmen Defense Command is to hold live-fire drills on Friday and Saturday as part of efforts to upgrade soldiers’ training and boost overall combat effectiveness. A notification issued by the Maritime and Port Bureau said that drills would take place simultaneously at sites in Kinmen County from 9am to 5pm on the first day, with a maximum trajectory height of 305m. The sites are Houyu (后嶼) and Caoyu (草嶼) islands, just off Kinmen County’s second-largest island, Leiyu (烈嶼), and sea sites between Dadan (大膽島) and Erdan (二膽島) Islands, which lie about 6km southwest of Leiyu, and near Shiyu (獅嶼) and Fuxingyu (復興嶼) islands close to Leiyu (烈嶼), as well as Dongding Island (東碇島) about 30km south of Leiyu. Drills are also scheduled on Beiding Island (北碇島), 4km east of the main Kinmen Island, the following day. The drills precede next week’s annual Han Kuang exercises, which include live-fire drills in waters south of Kinmen County from 5:30am to 7:30am on Tuesday next week, with a maximum trajectory height of 1.8km, the Ministry of National Defense said.
WEATHER
Hot weather forecast
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said that temperatures are forecast to be 37°C or higher for the rest of this week in the Taipei area, as well as in central and southern Taiwan. On Monday, New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽), which is prone to extreme heat because it is near mountains and has a lot of buildings, had the highest temperature nationwide of 39.4°C, followed by Houlong Township (後龍) in Miaoli County at 38.3°C, it said. Many other areas, including Taipei, Taoyuan, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Pingtung, Yilan, Taitung, Yunlin and Chiayi counties had highs of at least 37°C, it said. Heat warnings are likely to be issued for all regions except Hsinchu City, and Kinmen, Penghu and Lienchiang counties in the next few days, it said. Temperatures exceeding 37°C in most parts of Taiwan are expected to last until Saturday, after which greater cloud cover nationwide would bring temperatures down to 33°C to 35°C, the CWA said. A depression could bring more rain to Taiwan on Sunday and Monday next week, it said. A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines is forming near land, so it is too soon to determine whether it would become a typhoon, the CWA said.
CRIME
Chuang Suo-hang impeached
Former representative to Thailand Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) has been impeached by the Control Yuan for sexually harassing a female subordinate, it said in a statement yesterday. During his time in Thailand, Chuang, 68, harassed the woman physically and verbally, including by holding her hand and inviting her into his room to discuss speech drafts, the Control Yuan said. His behavior made the female subordinate feel scared, uncomfortable and offended, but she did not feel she could speak out because of his position of power, it said. Chuang’s actions met the definition of sexual harassment under the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reached the same conclusion, the statement said. Chuang’s actions not only infringed on the woman’s dignity, but also seriously damaged the reputation and image of Taiwanese diplomatic personnel and contravened provisions of the Public Functionary Service Act (公務員服務法), it said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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