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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
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