SOCIETY
Book fair opens Feb. 4
The 33rd Taipei International Book Exhibition is to open on Feb. 4 and run until Feb. 9 at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 1, organizers said yesterday. To meet this year’s theme, “Follow Your Fancy in Reading,” organizers are presenting a visual narrative created in a collaboration with illustrators and graphic designers, the exhibition’s Web site says. Ministry of Culture Department of Humanities and Publications head Yang Ting-chen (楊婷媜) said this year’s event is to have an Italian focus. More than 400 talks are scheduled for the exhibition and people can participate for free, it said. People aged 18 to 22 can use the ministry’s “culture point tokens” to enter the book fair, while children aged 13 to 15 would receive 600 culture points upon admittance, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from Taipei International Book Exhibition’s Web site
DEFENSE
Satellite no threat: ministry
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said a satellite launched by China that flew over Taiwan posed no threat given its altitude at the time. The ministry said in a news release that the satellite was launched at 4am yesterday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China’s Sichuan Province. The satellite flew over Taiwan, heading westward over the Pacific Ocean, it said. However, as the satellite flew beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, the ministry said the launch posed no threat to Taiwan. It added that it would continue to monitor threats and remain ready to respond to any that arise.
CRIME
Cop charged with sex abuse
A police officer in Taipei accused of sexually abusing his underage daughter was yesterday indicted on hundreds of sex-abuse charges. The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement that the officer, surnamed Cheng (鄭), was charged with 348 counts for having sex with his daughter over a seven-year period from 2010 to 2017. Cheng in May last year was released on NT$100,000 bail a month after his daughter reported the alleged abuse to the Taipei City Police Department. The National Police Agency suspended him from duty. Later yesterday, the department said that Cheng’s suspension would be re-evaluated based on the indictment and that he could be dismissed.
CRIME
Sentence raised after appeal
The Taiwan High Court yesterday raised the sentence of a man who was found guilty last year of sexually assaulting minors while teaching at a private preschool in Taipei to 28 years and eight months in prison. Mao Chun-shen (毛畯珅) was found guilty of nine counts of sexual assault by penetration, 203 counts of indecent assault and 14 counts of filming obscene images committed from 2021 to 2023, the court said in a news release. The cumulative sentences for the 226 criminal counts total 1,291 years, and Mao must serve a prison term of 28 years and eight months, it said. The former preschool teacher was originally handed a 28-year jail term by the Taipei District Court in August last year for 224 criminal counts totaling 1,252 years and six months, a ruling Mao appealed. High Court spokesman Wang Ping-hsia (王屏夏) said that after a review, a few adjustments were made to the case, including finding him guilty on one count of which he had originally been acquitted. Considering that Mao’s actions severely damaged the victims’ physical and mental health, as well as the trauma caused to their families, the High Court ruled to raise his jail sentence, which can still be appealed, Wang 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
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
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
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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