content_text:
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday approved applications from nine small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest a total of NT$4.6 billion (US$152.8 million) in Taiwan through a government subsidy program.

The new projects would generate 435 job opportunities, the ministry said.

The ministry gave the green light to traditional Chinese medicine maker Kodak Pharmaceutical Co (科達製藥), straw maker Eco Fin Co Ltd (益可芬), Li Sheng Color Printing Co Ltd (力盛彩色印刷), Shang Shun Concrete Products Ltd Co (上順水泥), Chin Chih Metal Industrial Co Ltd (青志金屬工業), Kai Jung Industrial Co Ltd (鍇榮實業) and three other firms in the metal processing and pump making industries.

Kodak Pharmaceutical, the nation’s second-largest traditional Chinese medicine maker, would invest more than NT$900 million in setting up a new production facility, the ministry said.

Eco Fin plans to invest more than NT$70 million to launch a smart manufacturing plant in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹) that would produce polypropylene and polylactic acid straws, the ministry said.

Seeking to establish a presence in Japan, Li Sheng, which supplies high-end foldable cotton packages used for food products, tobacco, alcohol and cosmetics, among other products, is to invest more than NT$500 million to establish a new plant in Miaoli County’s Houlong Township (後龍), the ministry said.

Seeking to expand its production capacity in Kaohsiung’s Dafa Industrial Park (大發工業區) while adding a green touch, Shang Shun plans to invest NT$40 million to purchase environmentally friendly machinery for mixing construction materials, the ministry said.

Chin Chih, a major powder metallurgy specialist, is to invest nearly NT$1.3 billion in setting up a new production facility in Miaoli’s Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區), the ministry said, adding that the firm counts Japanese automakers Nissan Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp among its customers.

In a bid to increase export orders, plastic injection molding service provider Kai Jung plans to invest NT$90 million to purchase computer numerical control machinery for its existing plant in Tainan’s Shalun Industrial Park (沙崙工業區), the ministry said.

High precision metal processor Hwa Ying Industrial Group (樺瑩工業) plans to invest NT$700 million to expand its production facility in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止); JKE Precision Industry Co Ltd (昆兆益) is to invest NT$300 million to set up an automated plant in Taichung’s Taiping District (太平); and valve and pump maker Tai Shyang Industry Co Ltd (泰翔工業) is to invest NT$300 million to construct a new plant in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), the ministry said.

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taiwan-subdivisions: 觀音 銅鑼 太平 汐止 蘆竹 後龍

title: Nine SMEs approved to invest NT$4.6bn


content_text:
Fitness equipment maker Dyaco International Inc (岱宇國際) yesterday announced that it is to acquire North American exercise equipment brand Sole Fitness as part of its goal of transforming into an original brand manufacturer.

The company’s board of directors earlier yesterday approved the 100 percent share purchase of Fitness Equipment Services LLC for US$28 million on top of the net value of its assets and liabilities on the closing date of the deal, Dyaco said in an e-mailed statement, without giving a clear timeframe.

In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange later yesterday, Dyaco said that it plans to set up a new US subsidiary to take over Sole Fitness, with an initial investment of US$35 million.

Sole Fitness is a major fitness equipment brand in North America targeting the mid-to-high-end home fitness equipment market, it said.

The two sides have been collaborating for 18 years, it added.

Dyaco supplies products to Sole Fitness on an original design manufacturing basis and helps sell the brand’s products outside of North America, Dyaco said, adding that it also assists in product development and design, patent filings and after-sales maintenance services.

Sole Fitness has posted about NT$2.3 billion (US$76.4 million) in average annual sales over the past three years, with an average gross margin of 23 percent and net profit of approximately NT$130 million, which would boost Dyaco’s finances, chairman Michael Lin (林英俊) said in the statement.

In addition, through the integration of resources on both sides, the acquisition would help Dyaco improve sales from online channels to physical stores in North America and further enhance the firm’s global competitiveness in the fitness equipment industry, Lin said.

Dyaco, which is headquartered in Taipei and has factories in Changhua County, manufactures fitness, health and wellness products for the home, commercial and medical markets. The company owns fitness equipment brands Spirit Fitness and Xterra Fitness, as well as produces and distributes products for other brands including Sole Fitness and Fuel Fitness.

Dyaco reported cumulative sales of NT$5.25 billion for the first 11 months of last year, up 7.34 percent year-on-year from NT$4.9 billion, while net profit for the first three quarters of last year increased to NT$112.91 million, from NT$7.36 million a year earlier.

Dyaco said in a separate filing that it is financially sound to carry out the acquisition, as it plans to use its own capital and bank loans, and would pay for the transaction in installments.

It added that it expects this month to complete a rights issue to raise NT$741 million.

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title: Dyaco to buy Sole Fitness


title: Nan Shan, Cathay cut declared rate

countries: 中國 台灣

content_text:
Nan Shan, Cathay cut declared rate

HEDGING COSTS:More issuers are redeeming bonds due to the low yield of US Treasury bonds, meaning that new investments targets must be found, Nan Shan said
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) and Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) have cut the declared interest rate on their New Taiwan dollar-denominated policies for this month.

Life insurers announce each month the rate — based primarily on the rate of their investment returns — that they are to use to calculate the size of policyholders’ distributions.

Nan Shan lowered the declared rate for 10 of its NT dollar-denominated products to a range of 2.15 percent to 2.25 percent from last month’s 2.3 percent, the company told the Taipei Times yesterday.

The company said it trimmed the rates on the expectation of falling investment returns due to the high cost of hedging against foreign-exchange risks and as some issuers continue to redeem bonds.

Given the low yield of 10-year US Treasury bonds, more issuers are expected to redeem their bonds this year to stop paying higher interest to investors, Nan Shan said.

This means that it must find new investment targets that could generate higher returns, the company said.

Nan Shan has kept the declared rate for its US dollar-denominated products unchanged at 3.3 percent, it said.

Cathay Life has reduced the declared rate for about 30 of its NT dollar-denominated interest-sensitive policies by 10 to 20 basis points, with the rates falling to between 2.15 percent and 2.3 percent, Cathay Life executive vice president Lin Chao-ting (林昭廷) said by telephone.

“Hedging costs are expected to continue to rise this year as the NT dollar is likely to remain strong against the greenback. Fluctuations in exchange rates will increase our costs and reduce our investment returns,” Lin added.

“It is a consensus in the industry that hedging costs will continue to rise. Some of our peers lowered their rates one or two months ago,” he said.

Cathay Life said that it would not adjust the rate for its NT dollar-denominated policies that are below 2 percent, as it seeks to keep rates higher than the return on a two-year fixed savings deposit.

The company raised the declared rate for its US dollar-denominated products by 5 basis points to 3.25 percent — the first change since August last year — due to higher market rates, Lin said.

Other companies such as Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) and China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) have decided to keep their declared rates unchanged this month.


content_text:
By Huang Hsu-lei and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer
Eighty-year-old Liu Tseng Yu-chen poses in Kaohsiung on the scooter she has used on two round-Taiwan trips in an undated photograph.Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times

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An 80-year-old woman completed an 18-day journey around Taiwan on an aging scooter, visiting more than 30 temples without using GPS and spending less than NT$10,000 on food and accommodations.

Liu Tseng Yu-chen (劉曾玉真), a community weaving instructor who volunteers at the Kaohsiung Education Bureau, made the more than 1,000km trek alone on her decade-old scooter, she said.

She spent NT$18,000 on the trip, but NT$10,000 went to donations to local temples, Liu Tseng said.

Visiting the temples was the highlight of her trip, she said, holding receipts for her donations to more than 30 temples for amounts ranging from NT$300 to NT$1,000.

At every temple she visited, Liu Tseng lit incense to pray for a successful journey, as well as a healthy and prosperous new year for her family and friends, she said.

As she stayed in affordable hotels or the homes of relatives or friends, she was able to spend just NT$8,000 on food and accommodations, she said, adding that the generosity of the people she met along the way helped keep her expenses low.

Liu Tseng said that she did not know how to use the Internet, but people would often recommend inexpensive hotels, point the way to a reliable mechanic when her scooter broke down or help her take the sole picture from her journey.

The picture was her with the Great Buddha Statue of Baguashan (八卦山大佛) in Changhua County, and it was taken by a passerby, she said.

This is Liu Tseng’s second time traveling around Taiwan on the scooter, she said, adding that nine years ago she managed it in 17 days.

Although her scooter was older this time and the buildings in Taipei have become taller, the scenery was more beautiful and the people even kinder, she said.

“These two times around Taiwan by myself are the most wonderful memories in my life,” she said, adding that the biggest reward was rediscovering the nation from a new perspective.

title: Octogenarian makes second round-Taiwan trip


content_text:
Former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) vice presidential candidate, yesterday accused the government of oppression after the Central Election Commission (CEC) refused to include references to his master’s and doctoral degrees in the official voters’ pamphlet.

The commission would not recognize his degrees in the official pamphlets for the elections on Saturday next week, which shows that the government is “oppressing” him, Chang told reporters in New Taipei City.

In the “education” section for Chang, the pamphlet shows that he has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU).

The “experience” section shows that he has a doctoral degree in civil engineering from Cornell University in New York and a master’s in civil engineering from Stanford University in California, alongside his roles as premier and former head of hardware operations for Google Asia Pacific Pte.

He was unable to list his master’s and doctoral degrees in the “education” section, as the commission requires that diplomas received abroad be verified by Taiwanese consular services for that country, Chang wrote on Facebook yesterday.

By the time he found out about the rule, it was too late for him to send the documentation to the US to be verified, he wrote.

CEC Vice Chairman Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) told reporters that the rule is in documents the commission released on Nov. 14 when it announced details about registering as a presidential candidate.

They are also in the enforcement rules of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), Chen said.

“One should not say that they left their helmet at home and blame the police for not giving them enough time to get the helmet,” Chen said.

Chang said that Chen’s logic was “ridiculous.”

While he was a lecturer at NTU, the Ministry of Education never required such a verification process, Chang said.

Why are there different systems for recognizing diplomas, he said.

National Chengchi University professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮) said that Taiwanese universities often require prospective faculty members to have diplomas received abroad verified in the same manner that the commission does.

“As a former premier, Chang should know the rules,” Hsu said.

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title: Simon Chang slams CEC over pamphlet


content_text:
Manufacturing PMI picks up: CIER

OUTLOOK UPBEAT:Companies have turned optimistic about their business prospects for the first time since July last year, the Taipei-based think tank said
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month climbed to 56.2, the fastest expansion in 19 months, as local companies benefited from 5G deployment and inventory demand for electronics ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

Companies turned upbeat about their prospects for the first time since July last year, with the possibility of a US-China phase one deal on Jan. 15 contributing to the optimism, the Taipei-based think tank said.

The PMI value — the result of a monthly survey intended to gauge the health of the nation’s manufacturing sectors — indicated an upturn in operating conditions for a third consecutive month.

Scores higher than 50 indicate an expansion, while those below the threshold suggest a contraction.

“An increase in demand for semiconductor equipment fueled the pickup and inventory demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday also contributed,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a media briefing in Taipei.

Chinese technology brands are rolling out 5G smartphones in an effort to increase sales over the Lunar New Year holiday this month.

All sectors reported business improvement with the exception of companies that supply electrical and machinery equipment, the monthly survey showed, meaning that companies selling chemical, plastic and basic materials also emerged from a protracted slowdown.

The sub-index on overall new business orders added 0.5 points to 61.5, while new export orders posted a concrete gain of 5.5 points to 55.8, CIER said, adding that the reading on industrial production reached an impressive 59.9, although easing from 60.4 a month earlier.

Manufacturers kept high headcounts last month, with the employment sub-index at 55, down from 55.6 in November, the survey showed.

Most companies have a positive business outlook moving forward, with the six-month outlook adding 8.4 points to 57.4 — pushing above 50 for the first time since July last year, CIER said.

Chen said that he attributed the rise in sentiment to reports that Washington and Beijing aim to sign a trade deal on Jan. 15 and organize further negotiations afterward.

Steve Lai (賴樹鑫), executive director at Supply Management Institute in Taiwan (中華採購與供應管理協會), said that 5G deployment would bring new consumer experiences and lend support to companies that are tapping related businesses.

The non-manufacturing index (NMI) was 54.1 from 55 in November, reflecting vibrant operating conditions for service-oriented firms for the 10th month in a row.

All sectors had an increase in business except for restaurants and hotels, the NMI report said.

title: Manufacturing PMI picks up: CIER


title: Kinmen street’s PRC flags lowered on fear of new law

content_text:
Republic of China flags yesterday hang along Mofan Street in Kinmen’s Jincheng Township.Photo: CNA
A potter in Kinmen County yesterday said that he and a borough official removed People’s Republic of China (PRC) flags from a street where they have hung them for fear of contravening the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法).

Wang Ming-tsung (王明宗), who works in Jincheng Township (金城), said that Republic of China (ROC) and PRC flags have flown along Mofan Street since 2018, but passage of the act on Tuesday prompted the immediate removal of the Chinese flags.

Wang said that since 2003, he has been flying the PRC flag over his store, which popularized the sight of it in Kinmen.

In 2018, he and Dongmen Borough (東門) Warden Tsai Hsiang-kun (蔡祥坤) began lining the streets with both flags, Wang said.

“The idea was to create a ho spot to promote tourism,” Wang said.

They helped boost local tourism, which benefited the community, he said.

Flying PRC flags on either side of Mofan Street emphasized the difference between democracy and autocracy, Wang said.

The PRC flags were removed in October last year in observance of Double Ten National Day, but were restored in November, he said.

However, passage of the act — which aims to prevent meddling by external hostile forces, and ensure national security and social stability — might make flying the Chinese flag a problem, he said.

Many Taiwanese visitors were amazed at the PRC flags and said they would not be seen on Taiwan proper, he said.

“Like Taiwanese who are excited to see their national flag abroad, Chinese tourists also feel more welcome when they see their flag in Taiwan,” Wang said.

Kinmen’s tourism industry has suffered from a decline in Chinese visitors that began last year, he said.

Tsai said that the political atmosphere has changed, but they still have to abide by the law, apparently a reference to the act passed by the legislature on Tuesday.

Kinmen, a few kilometers off the Chinese coast, is a traditional stronghold of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and County Commissioner Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) is a member of the party.

They would wait to see the results from the elections on Saturday next week before deciding whether to restart the flag tradition, Tsai said.

A Mofan Street store owner surnamed Hsu (許) said that it did not matter what flag was flying over her business, as long as she made money.

A visitor from Taiwan proper had accused her of being a sellout because she was flying the PRC flag, Hsu said.

It is “ridiculous that one could be accused of being a sellout because of a flag,” she said.

A clothing designer surnamed Hsu (許) said it was “out of place” to see PRC flags in Taiwan.

People should not treat the liberties that come with democracy so casually, the designer said, adding that if people truly sought to espouse the spirit of democracy, they should fly the ROC flag in China.

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people: 楊鎮浯 王明


title: Rare document on Napoleon, other works on display

content_text:
An 1802 document recording the French constitutional referendum that made Napoleon Bonaparte first consul for life is displayed at the National Central Library in Taipei on Dec. 24.Photo: CNA

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An original typewritten document from 1802 recording the French constitutional referendum that made Napoleon Bonaparte first consul for life is now on display at the National Central Library in Taipei.

The document, held privately for nearly two centuries, was presented to the library for safekeeping by private collectors, who have said that they believe it to be the only one of its kind.

It was part of a larger collection of European books and documents from a Chinese family that settled in Taiwan, the library said.

Although the library has not yet confirmed whether it is the sole remaining document on Napoleon’s rise to emperor of the French, “in terms of such documents, normally there would not be more than one,” library editor Tu Li-chung (杜立中) said on Tuesday last week.

“The document was signed by the then-minister of the interior of France and mounted by Napoleon himself, therefore its cover carries the Napoleon family crest,” Jason Dou, whose family owns the collection, told the Chinese-language CommonWealth Magazine on Monday last week.

The “Cheng Ting Tang” (澄定堂) collection has presented the library with 49 volumes of antique European books — most of them first-edition prints — for safekeeping since 2018.

These include an 1843 edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, an 1871 copy of Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex and a 1620 copy of Sir Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum.

Other rare books in the collection include The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1762, and Rene Descartes’ Discourse on the Method, published in 1637, the library said.

It also includes the first edition of I quattro libri dell’architettura, a 1570 treatise on architecture by Italian architect Andrea Palladio with 218 wood carving illustrations that could be classified as an iconic print, the library added.

Library Director-General Tseng Shu-hsien (曾淑賢) said that the works would be scanned and made available online for researchers and the public.

The collection is not a direct donation, which means the family could request the collection be returned at any time, library official Lu Tzu-ling (呂姿玲) said, adding that the library was still able to display the works and allow academics to study them.

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people: 蔡英文 嚴德發

content_text:
A rescue worker inspects a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in the mountains of New Taipei City’s Wulai District yesterday.Photo: CNA

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A military helicopter crashed yesterday morning, killing eight of 13 military personnel onboard, including Chief of the General Staff General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), the nation’s most senior military official ever killed in such an incident, the Ministry of National Defense said.

At a news conference at Songshan Air Force Base in Taipei at 1:55pm, Air Force Commander General Hsiung Hou-chi (熊厚基) confirmed that a UH-60M Black Hawk crashed and only five of those onboard had survived.

The other fatalities included Political Warfare Bureau Deputy Director Major General Yu Chin-wen (于親文), Intelligence Staff Office Deputy Assistant Major General Hung Hung-chun (洪鴻鈞), senior enlisted adviser Major Han Cheng-hung (韓正宏) and Major Huang Sheng-hang (黃聖航), a general staff officer, he said.

The helicopter’s pilot, Colonel Yeh Chien-yi (葉建儀), and copilot, Captain Liu Chen-fu (劉鎮富), were also killed, he added.

Shen was leading the group to Dongaoling Base (東澳嶺) in Yilan County to oversee New Year-related events for troops stationed in the area, the ministry said, adding that the helicopter left Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 7:50am.

Final contact with the helicopter was at 8:06am, when Yeh reported that “visibility is normal,” one minute before the aircraft disappeared from radar, the ministry said.

The cause of the crash was unknown and a task force was being assembled for an investigation, Hsiung said.

The Ministry of the Interior announced that it was grounding its fleet of 14 Black Hawks of the same model for safety inspections, saying that while the aircraft and their crews would be available for search-and-rescue operations, all training missions had been suspended until further notice.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), accompanied by Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) and National Security Council Secretary-General David Lee (李大維), visited the army’s Jinliujie Base (金六結) in Yilan to be briefed on the situation.

Tsai instructed Yen to keep the troops calm and vigilant, as well as to have all military bases nationwide fly the national flag at half-mast for three days of mourning.

The ministry must investigate and discover the cause of the crash, she said, adding that she had already spoken with Shen’s wife by telephone to convey her regret over the incident and condolences on behalf of the state.

The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board said that it would provide any necessary assistance to the military in investigating the cause of the crash.

“We have been informed about the accident and sent our investigators to join efforts at the National Rescue Command Center. As the helicopter was a military aircraft, the board is not obligated to investigate the cause of the accident,” board Executive Director Michael Guan (官文霖) said.

However, as it is the only agency equipped with the hardware to decode data from the helicopter’s flight data and cockpit voice recorder, the board would offer its assistance if the ministry requests it, Guan said, adding that it has signed a letter of intent with the ministry detailing cooperation.

The crash was the second incident in the nation involving a Black Hawk.

On Feb. 5 last year, the National Airborne Service Corp dispatched a Black Hawk to transport a patient from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) to Taitung County, but the aircraft crashed into the sea about 81 seconds after taking off from Lanyu.

title: Top general killed in helicopter crash


title: Shen known for his pilot, leadership skills

content_text:
By Aaron Tu and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer
Chief of the General Staff General Shen Yi-ming, front, is pictured at the New Year’s Day flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on Wednesday.Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Chief of the General Staff General Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴), who was killed yesterday in a helicopter crash in New Taipei City, had been in charge of the Ministry of National Defense’s General Staff Headquarters since July last year, succeeding retiring admiral Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明).

The 62-year-old air force general and his entourage were on a routine pre-Lunar New Year mission to visit troops at Dongaoling Base (東澳嶺) in Yilan County.

Prior to his taking up the General Staff Headquarters post, he had served for 15 months as vice minister of national defense, and from Feb. 1, 2015, to March 1 last year as air force commander-general. He was administrative deputy minister of defense before that.

As air force commander, Shen promoted joint operations training, and disaster prevention and rescue.

After graduating from the Republic of China Air Force Academy in 1979, Shen was posted to the Great Desert Program, working with the Saudi Arabian government in Yemen Arab Republic until the Saudi Arabian government transferred diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1990.

At the time of his death, Shen was the officer from that program still on active duty.

He graduated from the Air Command and Staff College in 1992, and following France’s sale of Mirage 2000-5 jets to Taiwan in the late 1990s, Shen was among the first group of Taiwanese pilots sent to France for training. He later served as instructor for other air force pilots.

He went on to study at the US Air Force’s Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, graduating in 2002.

Alexander Huang (黃介正), a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University who had known Shen for a decade, yesterday told The Associated Press that the general had stood out as a pilot and an officer.

“He was very calm and very stable, and unlike other army guys he was always smiling, so he [had] got a specific leadership style that also made him a popular leader in the entire military,” Huang said.

Shen was very disciplined, well-versed in knowledge of modern digital devices, to the extent that he could show his younger subordinates a trick or two, and was physically fit, receiving full marks during his annual physicals as air force commander, sources said.

Those familiar with Shen said that he valued the importance of scientific proof and professional analysis.

A military source said Shen’s fluency in foreign languages, as well as his knowledge of military affairs and diplomatic relations, made him a great choice as chief of general staff and to help promote the government’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

Deputy Chief of General Staff General Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌) last night was named acting chief of general staff to ensure the military’s capability to continue its operations as normal.

Additional reporting by CNA


title: China-UK tensions halt Stock Connect

content_text:
People take part at a lunchtime protest outside the HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong yesterday.Photo: Reuters
China has temporarily blocked planned cross-border listings between the Shanghai and London stock exchanges because of political tensions with Britain, five sources have said.

Putting the Shanghai-London Stock Connect scheme on hold casts a shadow over the future of a project meant to build ties between Britain and China, help Chinese firms expand their investor base and give Chinese investors access to UK-listed companies.

The sources, who include public officials and people working on potential Shanghai-London deals, all said that politics was behind the suspension.

Two of them highlighted Britain’s stance over the Hong Kong protests and one pointed to remarks over the detention of a now former staff member at its consulate in Hong Kong.

All five sources have been involved in talks with Chinese officials and spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, because they are not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

British companies and banks involved in the scheme are watching closely how recently elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson approaches relations with Beijing and what stance he takes on the Hong Kong protests.

China blames the Hong Kong unrest, heavily supported by pro-democracy advocates seeking to curb controls by Beijing, on interference by foreign governments, including the US and Britain.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Shanghai Stock Exchange did not respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for the London Stock Exchange and the British Exchequer declined to comment.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a faxed statement that it is not aware of the specifics, but added that it “hopes Britain can provide a fair and unbiased business environment for Chinese companies that invest in Britain and create the appropriate conditions for both countries to carry out practical cooperation smoothly in various fields.”

Stock Connect, which began operating last year, was devised as a way of improving Britain’s relationship with the world’s second-biggest economy and was seen as a major step by China to open up its capital markets, as well as linking them globally.

Huatai Securities Co (華泰證券) was the first Chinese firm to use the scheme in May, with SDIC Power Holdings Co Ltd (國投電力) set to become the second last month, with a listing of global depository receipts (GDRs) in London representing 10 percent of its share capital.

However, the alternative energy operator’s deal was postponed at an advanced stage, with SDIC Power citing market conditions as the main reason.

Five sources have said that SDIC Power’s deal was halted due to Beijing’s suspension of Stock Connect.

Other hopefuls such as China Pacific Insurance Group Co (中國太平洋保險), which one of the sources said could have launched a deal as early as this quarter, have also been told to put their cross-border listing plans on ice, they added.

SDIC Power and China Pacific Insurance did not respond to requests for comment.

“It’s not only a big blow to the companies looking to broaden their investor base via listings in London, but also to China’s links with global markets,” said one source, who has worked on one of the GDR deals.

The trouble with the scheme comes at a bad time for the London Stock Exchange and for Britain, which is eager to build ties with non-EU countries as it prepares to leave the eurobloc.


title: A message to Hong Kong’s people

content_text:
As a volunteer neighborhood leader and a democratic activist in the US, I want to express my strong support for your efforts to maintain and strengthen democracy in Hong Kong. Your work is inspiring me and democratic activists around the world.

I feel personally connected to your struggle since many years ago, my young children, my wife and I had an opportunity to live and work in China. Through this experience, we got to know many remarkable people, made lasting friendships and developed a deep respect for the history and culture of China.

We always entered and exited China through Hong Kong and we grew to love, and still love, your city and its great vitality.

My experience of life in China also helped me appreciate the freedom and democracy in my home. This experience contributed significantly to my subsequent life-long commitment to rebuilding democracy here in the US.

I came to understand and now share with you the understanding that democracy is essential both to individual freedom and to the prosperity and health of our cities and nations.

I am certainly not qualified and would never attempt to give you any advice on how to conduct your struggle.

However, what I can do that you might find useful is help you understand the state of democracy in the US, counter some of the propaganda about us spread by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and clear up some of the confusion and doubts you must have about our commitment to democracy given the obvious authoritarian tendencies of our current president.

Hopefully, you can learn a little from our current experiences, as we are learning from yours.

Speaking as an American democratic activist, I can assure you that we still do have a democracy in the US. As my ability to write this to you without any fear of reprisal demonstrates, we do still have freedom of speech. And we do still have the rule of law, the right to vote, a free press and strong democratic institutions and norms.

Most of us are deeply aware that our democracy is a gift given to us by the sacrifices and even lives of countless individuals from the founding of our nation to today.

We are proud that we now have, as a result of our recent and ongoing struggles against all forms of racism and discrimination, the ability to include many of our citizens previously excluded from fully participating in our democracy. And we know, now more than ever, that it is ours, only if we can keep it.

The propaganda of the CCP that our democracy is just a false cover for capitalist domination has never accurately described us. While business interests have sometimes been too powerful, their influence has always been met successfully with opposition from other parts of our nation in our ongoing struggle to create a free and just nation.

However, it is also true, beyond question, that our democracy is now in a weakened state. It is threatened and under attack by our own authoritarian president and his party and by foreign powers working to undermine democracy.

I will not try to list all of the facts that prove that our democracy is weak and threatened, but only point out the most telling fact that up to 40 percent of our citizens now seem to have lost faith in the fairness of our democratic institutions and are currently supporting our own president’s efforts to undermine our democracy.


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AVIATION

Airbus becomes No. 1

Airbus SE has become the world’s largest plane maker for the first time since 2011 after delivering a forecast-beating 863 aircraft last year, seizing the crown from embattled US rival Boeing Co, airport and tracking sources said on Wednesday. Airbus, which last year was forced by its own industrial problems to cut its delivery goal by 2 to 3 percent, deployed extra resources until hours before midnight to reach 863 aircraft for the year from a revised target of 860 jets. Deliveries rose 7.9 percent from 800 aircraft in 2018.

BANKING

Anbang to drop bank stakes

Anbang Insurance Group Co (安邦保險集團) is looking to offload stakes in a number of rural commercial banks as it continues to unwind its holdings. Beijing-based Anbang and its affiliates are selling 5.5 billion shares in Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank Co (成都農商銀行) for 26.2 billion yuan (US$3.76 billion), a company filing with the Beijing Financial Assets Exchange showed. Anbang is also looking to sell stakes in 11 other banks for a total of 85 million yuan, a separate filing showed. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in July last year said that risks surrounding Anbang have been curbed.

BANKING

Ant applies for digital permit

Billionaire Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Ant Financial Services Group (螞蟻金服) has applied for a digital banking license in Singapore. Ant submitted an application to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a wholesale license, which would allow it to serve corporate clients, the company said. “We look forward to contributing to the development of the digital banking landscape in Singapore,” it added in an e-mailed statement. The authority is offering as many as five digital banking permits to non-banks in a bid to open up the financial sector to new competitors.

OIL

Crude hits post-Soviet high

Russian crude oil and condensate output last year hit a post-Soviet high even as the nation curbed production under an agreement with OPEC. It produced 560.2 million tonnes of oil, up 0.8 percent from 2018, preliminary data from the Russian Ministry of Energy showed. That is equivalent to 11.25 million barrels a day, Bloomberg calculations showed. A record 11.416 million barrels a day were produced in 1987, BP PLC data showed.

SINGAPORE

Private home prices cool

Private home prices rose just 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, further evidence that government cooling measures levied in the middle of 2018 have taken the heat out of the city-state’s residential real-estate market. The increase compared with a 1.3 percent rise in the third quarter, a flash estimate released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed. For the whole of last year, apartment prices rose 2.5 percent, well below a jump of 7.9 percent in 2018.

INDIA

Gujarat Narmada faces fees

Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has asked it to pay 150.2 billion rupees (US$2.11 billion) in overdue fees by Jan. 23. The firm is seeking legal advice on the matter, which pertains to licenses for satellite phones and Internet services held from 2005 to last year, its exchange filing on Wednesday showed. The amount sought is 20 times Gujarat Narmada’s 7.4 billion rupee net profit for the year ended March last year.

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title: World Business Quick Take


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British chip designer Imagination Technologies Group PLC said that it has struck a new license agreement with Apple Inc, reviving a business relationship that had all but ended in the past few years.

The company, which was sold to Chinese buyout firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners LLC (凱橋資本) for ￡500 million (US$661.42 million at the current exchange rate) in September 2017, yesterday said that it “formed a new multi-year license agreement under which Apple has access to a wider range of Imagination’s intellectual property [IP] in exchange for license fees.”

Apple previously used graphics chips, or GPUs, in its iPhones and iPads that were designed by Imagination Technologies, but it moved to its own internal chip designs starting with the iPhone X in 2017 and the iPad Pro in 2018.

The US company also uses its own graphics processors in the Apple Watch.

It told Imagination Technologies in 2017 that it would stop using its IP in new products within two years.

When Imagination Technologies, then a public company, announced the loss of Apple as its biggest customer, its stock plummeted.

The British company in 2018 said that there might be “material uncertainty” regarding the future of the company if Apple did not pay any royalties on its latest generation of iPhones and iPads.

It is unclear if Apple paid those fees, but Imagination has argued that it would be “extremely challenging for Apple to design a GPU in a way that allows them not to pay royalties to Imagination.”

The company yesterday did not specify which IP the latest agreement covers, but Imagination’s IP related to graphics and artificial intelligence could be key to future Apple devices.

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title: Apple strikes deal with UK chipmaker


content_text:
Conservatives led by Austrian People’s Party Chairman Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday agreed to form an unprecedented coalition government with the Greens, capping almost three months of negotiations.

“We have succeeded to unite the best of both worlds... It is possible to protect the climate and borders,” said Kurz, whose party gained the most votes in snap elections in September last year.

The polls were triggered after a corruption scandal engulfed Kurz’s far-right ally after just 18 months in a coalition government, during which the 33-year-old had carefully cultivated his image as a hardliner on immigration.

Greens leader Werner Kogler said the two disparate parties had managed to “build bridges” to form a government for “the future of Austria.”

It is to mark the first time the Green party has been in power. The ecologists made key gains in the elections, with the environment replacing immigration as the top concern of voters.

Kogler said that the Alpine nation — which has been among just a handful of EU nations that have seen their greenhouse-gas emissions continue to increase between 1990 and 2017 — would aim to become a front-runner in terms of fighting climate change in Europe.

The two leaders said that they would reform the tax system to lower the burden on Austrians — a key People’s Party promise — but at the same time introduce higher ecological taxes in line with the Greens’ campaign.

Kogler said transparency, including freedom of information, as well as fighting poverty among children, the elderly and women would also be a priority.

Analysts said that the new government would face challenges after Kurz’s previous rule with the far-right Freedom Party saw a raft of anti-immigration measures passed, sharply dividing Austrians.

Describing a deal as a “huge stretch,” analyst Thomas Hofer said that Kurz could lose voters he gained from the Freedom Party, when the People’s Party got 37.5 percent of the vote.

The Greens secured 13.9 percent of the vote, their best-ever result, due to the environment replacing immigration as top concern in the nation of 8.8 million people.

Hofer said that other European nations, such as Germany, could also see Conservative-Green coalitions. Sweden, Finland, Lithuania and Luxemburg already have Greens in government.

“Kurz is setting a certain trend maybe ahead of time and this is certainly something also on the international stage that he would be able to sell,” Hofer said.

Hofer described Kogler, who is expected to be vice chancellor, as a “pragmatist,” who had stabilized his party.

A congress of the party’s almost 280 delegates must endorse the coalition agreement, but are expected to do so.

“It’s a historical chance for them,” Hofer said.

As junior coalition partner, the Greens are expected to get four ministries, including an enlarged environment ministry that would also comprise infrastructure, traffic, energy and technology, a party representative familiar with the negotiations said.

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title: Conservatives and Greens agree deal to govern Austria


title: Highlight: Formosa Improv Group murder mystery

content_text:
Formosa Improv Group will put on an interactive murder mystery show tomorrow night.Photo courtesy of NeedPix
Help the scriptless thespians of the Formosa Improv Group (FIG) figure out whodunnit tomorrow night. As the troupe’s name suggests, the entire show is improvised and nobody knows how the spine-chilling and potentially side-splitting tale will unfold.

The group will randomly select one of its improvisers to be the murder victim, while the others are detectives working to solve the mystery. Audience participation is key as the sleuths will rely on them to provide clues and evidence to move the events forward. After the killer is caught, the audience is invited to stay and chill with the crew at the afterparty.

FIG is a troupe of both locals and foreigners that has been putting on weekly workshops and irregular performances since the summer of 2018. All shows are in both English and Chinese. Those who are interested in joining can attend their weekly Monday evening workshops at Two Three Comedy.

■ Doors open at 7:30pm, show starts at 8pm, Two Three Comedy (23喜劇), 286, Linsen N Rd, Taipei City (台北市林森北路286號)

■ NT$400 including one drink, for more information visit www.facebook.com/events/2528263014111646

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title: EVERYDAY ENGLISH

content_text:
A: Hey, I’ve already started carrying out a New Year’s resolution. I registered for a yoga class when I knocked off work yesterday.

B: That was my resolution. Think of your own.

A: But I sit at my desk all day long, my whole body aches. I need to stretch out a bit.

B: I don’t want to rain on your parade, but I don’t think yoga is what you think it is.

A: 嘿嘿，我已經開始實行新年新希望了。我昨天下班後就去報名瑜珈課。

B: 那是我的新年新希望吧，你有一點創意好嗎？

A: 可是我每天上班都坐一整天，全身痠痛，真的很需要拉筋舒展一下。

B: 我是不想潑你冷水啦，但是瑜珈跟你想像中的是兩回事哦。

English 英文:

Chinese 中文:

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Highways and Byways: From ruin to refinement

Taichung’s Huangsi Academy is a beautifully restored throwback to the Qing Dynasty, when literacy wasn’t the norm and education was reserved for children of the elite
The Chinese logographic writing system is one of the most ancient in the world, and according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, until the 18th century, over half of the world’s books were written in Chinese. Mass literacy is a recent thing, however.

In her 1979 book, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch’ing [Qing] China, Evelyn Rawski writes that “the large number of potential teachers and the widespread distribution of private schools… suggests that [in the mid and late-19th century] 30 percent to 45 percent of the men and from 2 percent to 10 percent of the women in China knew how to read and write. This group included the fully literate members of the elite and, on the opposite pole, those knowing only a few hundred characters. Thus loosely defined, there was an average of almost one literate person per family.”

Taiwan was part of the Qing Dynasty after 1684, and it’s hard to say if the literacy rate on the island would have been higher or lower than in other parts of the empire. When the Japanese took control of Taiwan in 1895, the population was approaching three million. If 100 students graduated per year from each of the 60-odd tutorial academies which had been founded across the island over the previous three centuries (none of them were as big as modern-day schools), it’s hard to see how the overall literacy rate could have exceeded 10 percent in the 1890s.

By comparison, Robert Houston (a professor of history at Scotland’s University of St Andrews) has written: “By 1800, a majority of adults in northwestern Europe were literate [but] it was not until the 1940s that more than half of Portugal’s population could read and write.”

Before a network of modern schools was established in the 20th century, most of the formal education that took place in Taiwan happened in institutions like Taichung’s Huangsi Academy (磺溪書院).

Construction took almost three years and was completed in 1890. The academy soon became a key center of learning serving Dadusiabao (大肚下堡), an administrative division that existed in the late Qing and early Japanese periods, and which encompassed parts of the current districts of Dadu (大肚), Longjing (龍井), and Wuri (烏日).

Later on, the academy’s fortunes were mixed. The Japanese soldiers billeted here took good care of the building, and in 1935 the colonial authorities recognized it as a site of historical and cultural importance. However, as a result of neglect and the theft of artifacts, by the 1970s it was an utter wreck. Flooding was also a problem; the academy is 1.4km east of the Dadu River (大肚溪) which separates Taichung from Changhua County.

In the early 1980s, local worthies began lobbying the government to restore the academy. Noted architect Han Pao-teh (漢寶德, 1934–2014) — later founding president of Tainan National University of the Arts and first curator of the Museum of World Religions — was engaged to survey the ruins.

Between 1984 and 1989, NT$14.9 million was budgeted for rebuilding and renovation work. Looking at the academy now, it was money well spent. I hadn’t planned on stopping here during a bike ride from Longjing to Dounan (斗南), but — as I always try to avoid busier roads — I ended up on Wenchang 1st Street (文昌一街) in Dadu.

Huangsi Academy is at number 10, and its gorgeous appearance stopped me in my tracks. When I looked at the information panel in front of the building, the penny dropped. I’d heard about this place, but none of the photos I’d seen had made it look half as alluring as it was that sunny November day.

taiwan-subdivisions: 斗南 大肚 烏日 龍井


countries: 泰國 加拿大 台灣 以色列 瑞典 中國

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Twice’s Tzu-yu and BTS’ Jung-kook declared most beautiful, handsome faces

Twice周子瑜、BTS田柾國 榮獲全球最美最帥臉孔

Jeon Jung-kook of BTS is pictured in Incheon, South Korea on Nov. 28, 2018.
「防彈少年團」BTS成員田柾國在南韓仁川，攝於二○一八年十一月二十八日。Photo: AP
照片：美聯社

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“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” According to the 100 Most Beautiful Faces of 2019, published by film review platform TC Candler last week, hit Taiwanese singer Chou Tzu-yu topped the list for the first time. Chou, a member of girl group Twice, was followed by Israeli supermodel Yael Shelbia in second place and Blackpink’s Thai member Lisa took the third spot.

Jeon Jung-kook of global sensation BTS topped this year’s 100 Most Handsome Faces, also for the first time, followed by Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, known online as “PewDiePie,” in second place and Canadian singer Shawn Mendes came third. K-pop idols continued to dominate the Faces charts, with dozens of Korean stars making the listings this year, showing the high international visibility of the K-pop wave.

Late actor Godfrey Gao, ranked No. 84, was the only Taiwanese who made the Handsome chart. Gao died of “sudden cardiac arrest” at the age of 35 while filming a variety show in China in late November last year.

(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)

「魔鏡啊魔鏡，誰是世界上最美的女人？」根據影評網站「TC Candler」上週公布的二○一九年全球百大最美臉孔排行榜，台灣人氣歌手周子瑜首度奪冠。周子瑜是南韓女團Twice台籍成員，亞軍是以色列超模耶爾謝比亞，季軍是南韓女團Blackpink泰國成員Lisa。

至於全球百大最帥臉孔排行榜，轟動全球的「防彈少年團」BTS成員田柾國這次亦首度奪冠，亞軍是瑞典網紅菲力克斯謝爾柏格（PewDie-Pie），季軍是加拿大歌手尚恩曼得斯。而韓流偶像們則持續稱霸臉孔排行榜，本屆有多達數十位韓星均上榜，可見韓流的國際能見度有多高。

已故演員高以翔在第八十四名，是最帥排行榜上唯一的台灣人。高以翔於去年十一月在中國拍攝綜藝節目時，因「心因性猝死」而過世，享年三十五歲。

（台北時報張聖恩〉


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Novak Djokovic leads calls for ATP Cup, Davis merger

There is no point in having two men’s team tennis competitions, Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic said yesterday, suggesting that the new ATP Cup should merge with the Davis Cup.

The ATP Cup opens its inaugural edition today, replacing a number of previous Australian Open warmup tournaments with the new round-robin competition.

It comes six weeks after the revamped Davis Cup, which also has countries playing each other in a round-robin format, was held in Madrid.

Canadian Denis Shapovalov earlier yesterday suggested that the two events — one run by the men’s tour, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and the other by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) — should combine.

“It’s a really similar event and it’s literally back-to-back from the other one, so it’s a little bit of a weird sensation coming from what felt like the world championships coming to play another world championship,” Shapovalov said.

“So for me, I don’t see why they, the ATP and ITF can’t combine, can’t join, can’t come to some agreement and make just one, really unique and special tournament for everyone,” he added.

When asked about the Canadian’s comments, Djokovic, head of the ATP Player Council, agreed.

“We need to have one Super World Cup event, whatever you want to call it,” Djokovic said. “That’s not going to happen next year as well, but if the two sides, the ITF, the Davis Cup and the ATP get together very quickly, it can happen possibly for 2022.”

“I hope it will happen, because it’s kind of hard to get top players to commit to play both events — the Davis Cup and the ATP Cup,” he said. “And it’s six weeks apart, so they’re not really helping each other in terms of marketing, in terms of the value of the event.”

Djokovic’s concerns were shared by France’s Nicolas Mahut, who said that having two men’s team competitions was “too much.”

“Obviously, we don’t need two competitions the same way. Two team competitions is too much,” he said.

Djokovic does not normally play in Australia before the year’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne, but he will use the ATP Cup to prepare for his attempt to win an eighth Australian Open crown.

“The Australian Open courts, Melbourne Park was always very suitable to my game, and I can’t wait to go back there,” he said. “Obviously, that’s probably my most successful court in my career, in my life, so I love playing there.”

Djokovic’s first match in the ATP Cup is to be against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson tomorrow.

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content_text:
Stars score four in late comeback win

‘TEXAS FEEL’:The second-largest crowd to attend an NHL game packed into Cotton Bowl Stadium, which is known for hosting big football games and the state fair
Spectators watch a fireworks display before the start of the NHL Winter Classic between the Dallas Stars and the Nashville Predators at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday.Photo: AFP
Dallas Stars interim coach Rick Bowness had just seen a very similar comeback by his team, although the surroundings for this one were drastically different.

While pigs raced during time-outs next to the outdoor rink, which was built in the middle of a historic football stadium and framed to appear as if it was under an oversized ranch entry, the Stars on Wednesday scored four goals in a span of just less than eight minutes in a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators in an NHL Winter Classic that felt like a state fair.

Well, it was played at the site of the annual State Fair of Texas, with the rides and games on the midway open just outside Cotton Bowl Stadium, which is known for hosting big football games.

“Let’s look at it from two sets of eyes. From a coaching perspective, we won the game. We battled back. We survived those early penalties and the guys kept battling and believing and doing what was necessary to get us back in the game,” Bowness said.

“From a fan’s perspective, that was great hockey,” he said. “If I was out there watching that game and I was watching us on television, that was an awesome game. The whole thing was awesome.”

Alexander Radulov scored the tiebreaking goal on a one-timer with just under 15 minutes left and Andrej Sekera quickly added another goal for the Stars, who were down 2-0 after an extended Nashville power play in the opening minutes when Dallas forward Corey Perry got a game misconduct and was ejected for an elbow to the head of defenseman Ryan Ellis.

“It was an awkward play. It was very unintentional,” Perry said after the game. “I didn’t mean to do it. I hope he’s OK.”

Dallas reached the midpoint of their 82-game regular season with their third win in a row and in third place in the Western Conference. The Stars also overcame a 2-0 deficit in their previous game, with four goals in the third period of a 4-2 win at Arizona on Sunday.

Nashville have lost three in a row and are 11th in the West after making the playoffs last season — and losing in a six-game, first-round series against Dallas.

“You’re involved in a game like this and you want a different outcome so that you can really take the day in for what it’s worth,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “So we sit here on the wrong side of it, makes it a little more difficult for us.”

Dallas got their first goal with 1 minute, 8 seconds left in the second period, when Jason Dickinson skated around the back of the net and passed across the front of goalie Pekka Rinne to Blake Comeau for the shot that made it 2-1.

The Stars then scored three goals in a short span to start the third period before 85,630 spectators in Dallas, the second-largest crowd to attend an NHL game.

“It was awesome. You don’t really know what to expect when you walk out for the start of the game, but the atmosphere, the fans, everything they had going on with the fireworks, the flyover, everything, was just awesome,” Stars right winger Comeau said. “It was nice to have a Texas feel.”

Stars center Tyler Seguin, voted to the All-Star team this week, said that when Radulov scored, it was the loudest cheers he had ever heard during a game.

Radulov scored from the right circle on a power play, while Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist in the third. John Klingberg assisted on both power-play goals to start the third before Sekera’s first goal in nearly three years.

title: Stars score four in late comeback win


content_text:
Israeli prime minister asks lawmakers for immunity

‘TRAP’:Legal experts have asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether a prime minister can be tasked with forming a new government while under indictment
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday asked parliament for immunity, weeks after the embattled leader was indicted on a range of corruption charges.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is fighting for his political survival on two fronts — the corruption allegations and stiff opposition from a new centrist party.

The immunity request is expected to delay the start of court proceedings for months, as lawmakers are not due to vote on the matter until after March 2 elections.

The request is “in line with the law... [and] with the goal of continuing to serve you, for the future of Israel,” Netanyahu told reporters.

The prime minister’s spokesman, Ofer Golan, later confirmed that the request had been submitted to the speaker of the Knesset.

Netanyahu in November last year was charged by the attorney general with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases.

The leader of the right-wing Likud party denies the allegations, accusing prosecutors and the media of a witch hunt.

Reacting to the announcement, Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz said that “Netanyahu knows that he is guilty.”

Gantz said his own party would do everything it can to “prevent immunity.”

“In Israel, nobody is above the law,” he said.

A sitting prime minister is only required to step down once convicted and after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted, but legal experts have asked the Israeli Supreme Court to rule on whether a prime minister can be tasked by the president with forming a new government while under indictment.

A panel of three judges on Tuesday began looking into the matter and said they would make a ruling at a later time, without giving a date.

Netanyahu has described the legal initiative as a trap.

“I don’t for a moment think that Israel’s Supreme Court will fall into this trap. In a democracy, only the people decide who will lead them, and nobody else,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

The allegations against the prime minister include receiving thousands of dollars of gifts and offering to change regulations in exchange for positive media coverage.

Despite his legal woes, Netanyahu remains popular within Likud and last week secured a landslide victory in a leadership challenge.

He saw off a bid to wrest control of the party by former Israeli minister of the interior Gideon Saar, winning with 72.5 percent of the ballots.

The result strengthened the prime minister’s position in a party he has dominated for 20 years, with Netanyahu calling it a “huge win.”

Saar launched his bid after the prime minister failed to cobble together a governing coalition in the wake of two general elections last — in April and September.

Saar said his challenge was “not because of the Likud’s ideas”, but because a failure to change leadership would bring the risk of a left-wing government.

Likud and the Blue and White were deadlocked in the elections, necessitating a third national poll this year.

Netanyahu has vowed to win the March general election, although early opinion polls indicate it could result in yet another stalemate.

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title: China’s leaders are seeking to ‘draw strength from weakness’

content_text:
Early last month, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs jumped the Great Fire Wall used by Beijing to block access to many foreign Web sites and joined Twitter to communicate directly with the outside world.

Its tweets so far have ranged from calling the US a “SUPER LIAR” and upbraiding foreign journalists, to lauding China’s victories: “China’s vast land of 9.6 million km is free from war, fear, refugees and displacement. People of 56 ethnic groups live happy life, BEST human rights achievement!”

China’s new, defensive social media strategy betrays Beijing’s anxiety over the nation’s image as it enters the new year.

Adam Ni (倪淩超), an editor of “China Neican,” a new, Web-based newsletter on Chinese policy, wrote that “2019 has been a very, very bad year for China’s international reputation across a whole range of fronts — Hong Kong, Xinjiang, foreign interference, espionage, technology, strategic competition.”

Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the nation will enter the new year on the back foot after a year of converging crises. More than seven months of protests on its doorstep in Hong Kong have captured global attention and mobilized citizens to push back against Beijing’s influence over the territory.

A year-and-a-half-long trade dispute with the US has escalated into near full-on rivalry with Washington. Meanwhile, China’s ties with Canada, Australia and the UK have all come under strain in the past year as concerns about Beijing as a national security threat grow.

More recently, two major leaks of classified Chinese government documents detailing its program of mass detention of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang have emboldened critics, witnesses and other countries to speak out, and raised questions about possible dissent within government ranks.

At home, the government faces a slowing Chinese economy, which is growing at its most sluggish pace in 30 years, raising fears about unemployment. Chinese residents have been hit by rising consumer prices, highlighted by the fact that the cost of pork, the country’s staple meat, has skyrocketed, prompting the government to release strategic pork reserves.

A recent high-level economic planning meeting, attended by Xi and other top officials, named “stability” as one of the key priorities for the government next year.

“We are at a critical period,” an official summary of the conference said, acknowledging “downward economic pressure” and “intertwined structural, institutional and cyclical problems.”

“We need to be well prepared with contingency plans,” it said.

However, rather than weakening the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) hold, observers say chaos gives it pretext to exert yet more control.

“The party draws a lot of strength from weakness. It’s able to justify crackdowns, party loyalty campaigns,” said Samantha Hoffman, who researches Chinese security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The government has in the past few months released new guidelines for patriotic education, the training of party members, morality guidelines for citizens and new restrictions on content. Secondary and elementary schools have been ordered to cull their libraries of “illegal” or “improper” books — leading to one incident of a book burning at a county library.

External pressures also give Beijing the ability to deflect. The Chinese economy was facing headwinds before the trade issues arose, yet officials can now blame some of those problems on Washington.


title: Lakers hold off Suns to extend winning streak

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The Los Angeles Lakers’ Danny Green hangs from the rim after a dunk in their NBA game against the Phoenix Suns at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday.Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA Today
The Lakers on Wednesday built a huge early lead against Phoenix, only to see it shrink to single digits. They still won their third in a row, but considered it a lesson learned.

LeBron James notched his eighth triple-double of the season, while Anthony Davis had 26 points and 11 rebounds as the Western Conference leaders opened the new year with a 117-107 win over the Suns.

“We can’t allow ourselves to fall into a trap like that,” Davis said. “You got to learn how to handle success within games.”

James finished with 31 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in a game that appeared well in hand by the end of a dominant first quarter. He had double-figure points and assists by halftime.

“We wanted to get off to a good start and protect home as well as we can,” James said.

The Suns rallied in the fourth, getting within seven points after trailing by 36 earlier in the game. That forced the Lakers’ starters back in and James steadied them with eight points to close out the win.

“You always got to be engaged until the clock hits zero,” James said.

The Lakers shot 70 percent in a ferocious opening quarter when they made their first 11 shots. Danny Green had their first miss on a three-point attempt, but the Lakers controlled the offensive rebound and JaVale McGee found Green for a dunk.

“I’m asking our guys to dominate everybody they play,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “Our guys took that message to heart.”

The Lakers missed just eight attempts in the first. James airballed a shot, but they snagged the rebound and Avery Bradley scored to salvage the possession.

The Lakers put together a 25-4 run in which the Suns were limited to only free throws.

Among the highlights, Davis dunked over Aron Baynes and let out a roar, and later Davis threw down a reverse dunk on James’ pass.

Not to be outshined, James followed with a two-handed jam that ignited the crowd.

Los Angeles led 43-17 at the end of the quarter.

Kyle Kuzma, sporting blond hair, had three three-pointers in the second. Bradley scored on a smooth behind-the-back pass from James. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope beat the shot clock with a casual heave on a three-pointer. Dwight Howard chipped in eight points and the Lakers shot 61 percent in taking a 74-41 lead into halftime.

Kuzma added 19 points and Bradley had a season-high 18.

Devin Booker scored 32 points and Kelly Oubre Jr added 26 for the Suns. Phoenix had won two in a row after losing eight straight.

“We turned it up a notch in the second half and came out swinging,” Booker said. “We did it with defense and a will to play and a competitive spirit. We know we can do it. We’ll figure it out. Anytime you go 2-2 on a road trip, it’s a good road trip.”

In other results, it was:

‧ Knicks 117, Trail Blazers 93

‧ Magic 122, Wizards 101

‧ Bucks 106, Timberwolves 104

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content_text:
Arsenal defeat United 2-0 as Spurs, Chelsea stumble

Everton’s Jordan Pickford dives for the ball in their Premier League match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, on Wednesday.Photo: Reuters
Arsenal on Wednesday rang in the new year by giving boss Mikel Arteta his first victory as lackluster Manchester United crashed to a 2-0 defeat, while Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea also slipped up in the Premier League’s top four race.

Arteta had watched Arsenal take only one point from his first two matches, with last weekend’s 2-1 defeat against Chelsea especially painful after the Blues scored twice in the final minutes.

However, Arsenal had played well for long periods in that London derby and they produced an even more sparkling display to put United to the sword at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners took the lead in the eighth minute, when Sead Kolasinac’s cross ran through to Nicolas Pepe at the far post and the Ivory Coast winger beat David de Gea from close-range.

Arsenal, who last won in the league at West Ham United on Dec. 9, got a deserved second goal in the 43rd minute, when De Gea kept out Alexandre Lacazette’s flick and Sokratis reacted quickest to lash home.

Arteta’s team are nine points adrift of the top four, but their second win in 16 matches in all competitions offers hope of a brighter future under the former Arsenal midfielder’s management.

“It feels great, incredible. I’m so happy and proud of the players,” Arteta said. “Physically, the level dropped in the second half, but the commitment and desire was terrific.”

“The performances are getting better, so I was desperate for the win and we got it,” he added.

United are fifth, five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, after the latest in a long list of underwhelming performances in a troubled campaign.

“We started decent the first five or six minutes, didn’t capitalize, and then they played really well,” United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. “We were too slow in the first half, but that’s credit to them. Some tired heads maybe.”

Chelsea remain in pole position to secure the fourth Champions League qualification place, but manager Frank Lampard will rue conceding a spectacular late equalizer in the 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Cesar Azpilicueta gave Chelsea the lead, tapping in from close-range in the 10th minute.

However, Brighton scored the goal their persistence deserved in the 84th minute, when Iranian substitute Alireza Jahanbakhsh acrobatically found the bottom-left corner with an overhead kick.

“It was frustrating for different reasons,” Lampard said. “We weren’t ruthless enough. We got the goal and we had the possession, but we just didn’t kill the game off.”

Those dropped points gave Jose Mourinho’s Spurs the chance to crank up the pressure on Chelsea and United, but they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Southampton and England captain Harry Kane limped off with a hamstring injury.

Tottenham fell behind to a 17th-minute Danny Ings goal and Kane injured himself as he converted Christian Eriksen’s free-kick in the second half, but was flagged offside.

Mourinho’s frustration boiled over as he was shown a yellow card after an altercation with the Southampton bench.

“I was rude,” Mourinho said. “I clearly deserved the yellow card. I had bad words.”

Elsewhere at the top of the table, second-placed Leicester City cruised to a 3-0 win at Newcastle United and Manchester City beat Everton 2-1 to hand Carlo Ancelotti his first defeat since taking over as manager.

Leicester appear to have put a mini-slump behind them, courtesy of goals from Ayoze Perez, James Maddison and Hamza Choudhury, to move to within 10 points of leaders Liverpool.


title: New Zealand rodeo faces protests

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Rodeo season has got off to a rocky start in New Zealand, with protest numbers swelling outside events around the country.

About three dozen protesters yesterday chanted outside the Wanaka rodeo in the South Island — “there’s no excuse for animal abuse” — calling for an end to the sport, which they say is cruel and demeaning to the animals.

About 100 protesters also turned out at Warkworth rodeo near Auckland calling for a council ban.

The animal protection society SAFE said four animals died in rodeos in New Zealand last year, and the government needed to follow the lead of the UK in outlawing all events.

Earlier this year SAFE claimed its first victory after the Northland Mid Northern Rodeo Club canceled its rodeo due to financial pressures.

“Every year at the Wanaka rodeo, normally docile animals are bullied, abused or killed by so-called ‘cowboys,’” SAFE spokesman Will Appelbe said.

“The reality is that all animals used in rodeo are treated appallingly,” he said. “Horses, bulls and calves are all bullied and tormented purely so a few people can play ‘cowboy’ for the day.”

Of particular concern to SAFE was the use of “flank straps” on bulls and horses in rodeos, with the animals being “riled up” before the event and then fitted with the straps, which were pulled tight, causing them to buck in an attempt to remove the pressure, Appelbe said.

SAFE and other animal rights groups say rodeos place undue stress on the animals, as well as causing a litany of injuries including torn ligaments, broken bones, bruising and internal damage, particularly in the rope and tie and steer wrestling events, which use calves.

“Most people don’t realize they [bulls] are prey animals, so being ridden by a ‘cowboy’ makes them feel as if a predator has jumped on their back,” Appelbe said.

New Zealand’s rodeo is a small circuit, with just 35 events a year and 500 competitors, but it draws large crowds in the holiday season.

In the last few years major businesses such as Foodstuffs, Meridian Energy and House of Travel have withdrawn their sponsorship from rodeo events over animal welfare concerns, causing many clubs to struggle financially.

New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association president Lyall Cocks said vets are on duty at every event, monitoring animals welfare and removing any animals from competition that display signs of stress.

Animals are checked before and after they enter the arena, Cocks said.

Rodeos are a “lifeline” for isolated rural communities, Cocks said, adding that the events test real-life stockman skills with on-farm application.

So far the Labour Party coalition government has refused to cave to protesters demands, but animal rights groups say their protests would only get bigger, placing more pressure on the government in an election year.

For cowboy Chad Ormsby, the protesters are no more than an uncomfortable distraction, and he, like many in the rodeo community, criticize the activists for failing to understand their culture.

“I see our animals like children, they need training, education and respect — then they learn their job and what is expected of them,” Ormsby said.

“It is silly to think about hurting the animals or doing harm by them because in this world, we need them, we need to look after them,” he added.

Queenstown Vegan Society spokesperson Kat Gollop, who was protesting outside the Wanaka rodeo, said children should be taught to respect animals, but that would not happen when they were being “exploited in the name of entertainment.”


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The number of people killed in large commercial plane crashes fell by more than 50 percent last year, despite a high-profile Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia in March, a Dutch consulting firm said on Wednesday.

Aviation consulting firm To70 said that there were 86 accidents involving large commercial planes — including eight fatal incidents — resulting in 257 fatalities last year.

In 2018, there were 160 accidents, including 13 fatal, resulting in 534 deaths, the firm said.

The firm said that the fatal accident rate for large planes in commercial passenger air transport was just 0.18 fatal accidents per 1 million flights last year, or an average of one fatal accident every 5.58 million flights, a significant improvement over the previous year.

The fatality numbers included passengers, air crew and any people on the ground killed in a plane accident, the firm said.

The large passenger planes in the study are aircraft used by nearly all travelers on airlines worldwide, but exclude small commuter planes, including the Cessna Caravan and some smaller turboprops, the firm said.

Boeing’s board on Monday last week said that it had fired chief executive Dennis Muilenburg after a pair of fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX forced it to announce it was halting output of its best-selling jetliner.

The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an October 2018 crash in Indonesia and the crash of a MAX in Ethiopia.

To70 said that the aviation industry last year spent significant effort “focusing on so-called ‘future threats,’ such as drones,” but the MAX crashes were “a reminder that we need to retain our focus on the basics that make civil aviation so safe: well-designed and well-built aircraft, flown by fully informed and well-trained crews.”

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title: Deaths in plane crashes fall by more than 50%


content_text:
Jane Jacobs, the influential New York-based journalist and urban activist, is the subject of a free documentary screening tomorrow.Photo courtesy of atmovies.com
A pioneering New York-based journalist and urban activist, Jane Jacobs overcame naysayers who dismissed her as a housewife without a college education, to become an influential writer and thinker in urban studies, sociology and economics.

Tomorrow at 7pm, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City will screen at Linking Bookhouse (聯經書房). The 2017 documentary by American filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer depicts the battle of wills between Jacobs and Robert Moses, known as the “master builder” of mid-century New York City.

Jacobs’ humanistic critiques of urban renewal plans that ignored the needs and lives of ordinary residents helped to change the course of urban development in New York City, and show what is possible when just one engaged citizen dares to stand up to the system.

The screening, organized by online streaming service Giloo, will be followed by an hour-long discussion of Jacobs’ seminal 1961 work The Death and Life of Great American Cities and her biography Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs.

■ Citizen Jane: Battle for the City screens tomorrow, 7pm at Linking Bookhouse (聯經書房), 94, Xinsheng S Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生南路三段94號). Register online at: bit.ly/2S0k4ow

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title: Highlight: Jane Jacobs documentary


content_text:
India is to attempt a second moon landing — after an attempt last year failed just minutes before a scheduled touchdown on the lunar surface — in a bid to restore its credentials as an ambitious space power.

The nation’s Chandrayaan-3 mission to the moon, likely this year, is to consist of a lander and a rover, and is to use inputs from an orbiter from the previous mission, Indian Space Research Organization chairman K. Sivan said in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

The nation has also made progress on its first manned space mission by identifying four astronauts, Sivan added.

India and China are both trying to establish a presence in space exploration. While China was the first nation to land a rover on the far side of the moon, India had aimed to become the first to the southern pole, the same spot NASA is targeting in 2024 with its Artemis mission.

The US$1.4 billion Gaganyaan mission — which plans to launch a module with astronauts by 2022, taking them on a seven-day voyage around the Earth — would make India only the fourth nation to send humans into space.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sharpened the nation’s focus on space since coming to power in 2014, with a pipeline of ambitious programs, including planned missions to study the sun and Venus, before eventually establishing a space station.

Apart from space-faring nations, billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson are competing in an unofficial space race, from launching satellites to sending astronauts and tourists into space.

The previous mission, which intended to analyze virgin territory, placed an orbiter around the moon before the lander lost contact with scientists.

NASA, with the help of Indian mechanical engineer Shanmuga Subramanian, located the crashed spacecraft last month.

“Even though we couldn’t successfully soft land, the orbiter is still functioning and it is going to function for another seven years,” Sivan said. “Chandrayaan-3’s configuration will be almost similar to Chandrayaan-2.”

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title: India set to make another attempt to land on the moon


title: AI could improve cancer detection

content_text:
A Google artificial intelligence (AI) system proved as good as expert radiologists at detecting women with breast cancer by screening mammograms and showed promise at reducing errors, researchers in the US and UK reported.

The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, is the latest to show that AI has the potential to improve the accuracy of screening for breast cancer, which affects one in eight women globally.

Radiologists miss about 20 percent of breast cancers in mammograms, the American Cancer Society says, and half of all women who get the screenings over a 10-year period have a false positive result.

The findings of the study, developed with Alphabet Inc’s DeepMind AI unit, which merged with Google Health in September last year, represent a major advance in the potential for the early detection of breast cancer, said Mozziyar Etemadi, one of its coauthors from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.

The team, which included researchers at Imperial College London and the UK’s National Health Service, trained the system to identify breast cancers on tens of thousands of mammograms.

They then compared the system’s performance with the actual results from a set of 25,856 mammograms from the UK and 3,097 from the US.

The study showed that the AI system could identify cancers with a similar degree of accuracy to expert radiologists, while reducing the number of false positive results by 5.7 percent in the US-based group and by 1.2 percent in the UK-based group.

It also cut the number of false negatives, where tests are wrongly classified as normal, by 9.4 percent in the US group and by 2.7 percent in the UK group.

The differences reflect the ways in which mammograms are read.

In the US, only one radiologist reads the results and the tests are done every one to two years. In the UK, the tests are done every three years and each is read by two radiologists. When they disagree, a third is consulted.

In a separate test, the group pitted the AI system against six radiologists and found it outperformed them at accurately detecting breast cancers.

Connie Lehman, head of the breast imaging department at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital, said the results were in line with findings from several groups using AI to improve cancer detection in mammograms, including her own work.

The notion of using computers to improve cancer diagnostics is decades old and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems are commonplace in mammography clinics, yet CAD programs have not improved performance in clinical practice.

The issue is that CAD programs are trained to identify things human radiologists can see, whereas with AI, computers learn to spot cancers based on the actual results of thousands of mammograms, Lehman said.

That has the potential to “exceed human capacity to identify subtle cues that the human eye and brain aren’t able to perceive,” Lehman added.

Although computers have not been “super helpful” so far, “what we’ve shown at least in tens of thousands of mammograms is the tool can actually make a very well-informed decision,” Etemadi said.

However, the study has some limitations.

Most of the tests were done using the same type of imaging equipment and the US group contained a lot of patients with confirmed breast cancers.

Crucially, the team has yet to show the tool improves patient care, said Lisa Watanabe, chief medical officer of CureMetrix, whose AI mammogram program won US approval last year.


title: EDITORIAL: The next government needs vision

content_text:
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Wednesday delivered her New Year’s address. Given the closeness to the presidential and legislative elections on Saturday next week, the speech was weighted heavily to some of the main issues of the campaign. Taiwanese also wanted to hear about her vision for the future.

Tsai spoke of the state of the nation, her administration’s achievements and its plans for the next four years if she secures re-election. However, her calculation seems to have been that the electorate has responded most favorably to her standing up to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the defense of Taiwan’s sovereignty.

More than half of the speech addressed the threat the CCP poses to Taiwan’s sovereignty; a full third of this section was on the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) passed by the legislature on Tuesday. Tsai was clearly mindful of the controversial nature of the law.

Safeguarding a nation’s sovereignty is of paramount importance and it is right for the government to take the threat from the CCP seriously. Equally, the nation’s future depends on steady stewardship of the economy and navigating the tumultuous social changes ahead.

Tsai’s administration has introduced pension reforms — extremely divisive at the time, but nevertheless necessary for the health of state finances — and changes to labor laws, which were unpopular and poorly implemented initially, as well as legislation on same-sex marriage, again a divisive issue. It has also developed the New Southbound Policy for industrial and trade diversification away from overreliance on China and for closer alignment with the US’ “free and open Indo-Pacific” strategy, and worked to reverse overseas relocation of Taiwanese companies.

Thus far, Tsai has been pointing the ship in the right direction, but has been unsteady and indecisive on the tiller. She has addressed issues born of the nation’s agricultural and industrial past, as well as the legacy of poor management by previous governments. The next few years will require strong, dexterous leadership.

Only 10 percent of her speech was devoted to a vision for Taiwan’s future. In it, she sees a Taiwan transformed into a center for high-end manufacturing; high-tech research and development; and sustainable energy development, as well as a hub for high-tech and industrial personnel training.

This is all going to be easier said than done.

The world is entering a new era, with the imminent introduction of 5G, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, the cloud and big data. How these technologies interact and evolve will lead to tumultuous industrial and social changes that will be disruptive, disconcerting and intimidating for many, especially those already in the workforce.

Tsai’s speech touched upon the government’s endeavors to increase the birthrate. However, what seems to be a demographic problem now might well be addressed by the application of the aforementioned technologies — what seems to be stable now might be plunged into turmoil in the near future.

Energy generation and storage will present another major challenge. The government is phasing out nuclear power, the right thing to do given the nation’s location in an earthquake zone and a problematic relationship with construction regulations. However, it must be replaced with reliable, constant and inexpensive sources of sustainable energy.


title: Alleged vote-buying draws charges

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Tainan prosecutors yesterday charged two people with vote-buying and deferred prosecution for another two people following searches conducted two months ago based on complaints from local residents.

The alleged breaches of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) are reportedly the first of their kind in this election season.

The main suspect, a man surnamed Lee (李), and an accomplice, surnamed Cheng (鄭), allegedly enticed Tainan residents with tours of Taiwan, dinners and gifts of food, including sausages, fish balls and cookies, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said.

Lee formed a Tainan food workers’ association and printed brochures for it, which he and Cheng distributed in person and online, including via Line and other messaging apps, Tainan Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lin Chung-pin (林仲斌) said.

“Lee asked people to register with his association for a NT$1,200 [US$39.85] annual fee, with members entitled to four restaurant dinners, 10 tours to destinations across Taiwan and gift packages of food,” Lin said.

The brochures listed Lee Wu-lung (李武龍) as an executive of the association.

The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in Tainan’s second electoral district has the same name.

Lee Wu-lung is running against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) in the elections on Saturday next week.

The two main suspects asked members of the association to vote for Lee Wu-lung, Lin said.

“Their alleged actions were deemed to be a form of bribery, as members would receive undue benefits in return for promising to vote for a specified candidate,” Lin said.

Prosecutors searched several locations on Nov. 20 and questioned 31 people.

On Nov. 25, Lee Wu-lung and supporters told prosecutors that he had no connection to vote-buying activity and filed a judicial complaint against the main suspect.

“I do not know this man, Lee [the suspect], and did not authorize him to circulate the brochures and sign up members with offers,” Lee Wu-lung said.

“The man used my name and my father’s name on the brochure as the association’s executives,” he said, adding that “it was done without my knowledge.”

“The man’s actions were part of an illegal scheme to benefit himself and he has tarnished my reputation,” Lee Wu-lung said. “He left people with a negative impression of me as a buyer of votes.”

“I must file a judicial complaint to defend my good name and restore my honor,” he said.

Separately yesterday, Criminal Investigation Bureau officials said that they were questioning six people who could face charges of breaches of the Banking Act (銀行法) after an allegedly illicit banking operation in New Taipei City was raided.

The suspects allegedly wired a total of NT$225.6 million between Taiwan and China over the past two years, the bureau said.

The operation was allegedly headed by two brothers surnamed Wang (王) and made about NT$9 million, it said.

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people: 郭國文 李武龍


title: Australia evacuates fire-ravaged towns

content_text:
Australia evacuates fire-ravaged towns

STATE OF EMERGENCY:Visitors were being warned to leave before tomorrow, when another heat wave is expected, with gusting winds and temperatures above 40°C
Australia yesterday authorized the forced evacuation of residents amid a mass exodus of tourists from fire-ravaged coastal communities, as the nation braced for a weekend heat wave expected to fan deadly bushfires.

Catastrophic blazes ripped through the southeast of the nation on New Year’s Eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency — that allows for forced evacuations beginning today — for the third time in the nation’s most populated region this fire season.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly, but we also want to make sure we’re taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday,” Berejiklian said.

It came after the New South Wales Rural Fire Service declared a “tourist leave zone” stretching about 200km from the popular holiday spot of Bateman’s Bay along the picturesque coast to neighboring Victoria state, where people are also being urged to flee.

At least 18 people are known to have died in one of Australia’s most devastating bushfire seasons yet and there are growing fears that the toll could rise dramatically, with officials in Victoria saying 17 people were missing in the state.

Visitors were being warned to leave affected areas before tomorrow, when another heat wave is expected to sweep across the nation, with gusting winds and temperatures above 40°C.

That weather would create conditions as bad as — if not worse than — on Tuesday, the deadliest day in a months-long bushfire crisis, officials said.

Many tourists and residents spent two nights isolated with no electricity or telecommunications, before authorities yesterday declared some roads safe to use.

New South Wales Minister for Transport Andrew Constance called it the “largest evacuation of people out of the region ever,” with a line of vehicles stretching along the highway toward Sydney as thousands fleed the area.

One driver said it had taken her three hours to travel just 50km.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said that firefighters would be unable to extinguish or even control the raging blazes.

“The message is we’ve got so much fire in that area, we have no capacity to contain these fires,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We just need to make sure that people are not in front of them.”

John Steele, 73, who lives outside the southcoast town of Merimbula, said that some people were “panicking” amid warnings to evacuate.

“There’s so much misinformation on Facebook and on the Web,” he said.

Steele said that the region had been “chaotic” as fresh produce and fuel supplies ran low, but he and his wife were staying put for now.

“We’re happy to see every man and his dog leave town,” he said. “We are cautious, we have our bags packed.”

The number of homes confirmed destroyed has topped 400, with that figure expected to rise as firefighters reach communities still isolated by the flames.

Two Royal Australian Navy ships arrived in Mallacoota — where people huddled on the foreshore for hours on New Year’s Eve as a fire bore down on the remote town — to begin evacuating up to 4,000 people in an operation that could take weeks, officials said.

Victoria Joint Bushfire Task Force Commander Doug Laidlaw said that the first evacuees would be moved onto the vessels this morning, with children, the sick and elderly taking priority.