POLITICS
Ko’s detention continues
Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is to be held incommunicado detention for another two months for alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City (京華城) case during his tenure as Taipei mayor. Ko decided not to appeal the Taipei District Court’s decision on Nov. 1, which agreed to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office’s request to extend his detention. Ko’s lawyers could appeal the decision until yesterday, and they did not. It means his detention would be extended to Jan. 4 next year, unless the court decides to release him on bail. Aside from Ko, other major suspects in the case being held in detention include Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), chairman of the Core Pacific Group (威京集團), which was in charge of the controversial Core Pacific City redevelopment project, Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) and then-deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲). Prosecutors said Sheen allegedly paid bribes of NT$47.4 million (US$1.47 million at the current exchange rate) to sway city government officials to substantially increase the floor area ratio — the amount of floor space a developer can build on a given plot of land — of the project.
MILITARY
Vintage bomb found
An army unit yesterday removed a “corroded” unexploded 227kg bomb from a construction site for a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) semiconductor plant in Kaohsiung, authorities said. The “severely corroded” bomb was found at the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park. Construction workers were briefly evacuated from the site while the army bomb disposal unit recovered the bomb. The device appeared to be from an “early period,” but its exact vintage could not be determined due to its “unclear serial number,” 8th Field Army spokeswoman Kung Chiung-yu (龔瓊玉) said. The bomb was later taken to a secure storage facility where it would be destroyed, Kung said. The area where it was found had been used by the Japanese Navy as a fuel plant during World War II and it was later converted into a refinery, the Bureau of Cultural Heritage’s Web site said. “We prioritize the safety of on-site personnel and will collaborate with the relevant authorities to adhere to the prescribed procedures,” TSMC said in a statement.
CRIME
Pager probe closed
Taipei prosecutors yesterday said they had closed a probe into pagers that exploded in Lebanon in September, dealing a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved. Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has said that it did not produce them. The government has also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan. Taipei prosecutors said in a statement the AR-924 pager model that exploded in Lebanon was manufactured, traded and shipped by a firm called Frontier Group Entity, and made outside of Taiwan. However, Gold Apollo had authorized the company to use the Apollo trademark, they said. “There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, contravening the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaging in other illegal activities,” they said in a statement. “No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity, following a comprehensive investigation.”
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS