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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS