Prosecutors said that it was the most serious breach of national security in the past several years. After their statements were taken, the suspects were transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning. Hung registered more than 100 nonprofit organizations and shell companies with the New Taipei City Government, including the New Taipei City Water Resources Economic Development Association and the New Taipei City Industry Exchange Association, which he used to organize purportedly short-term cross-strait exchange programs for people in various professions, they said. The loophole allowed Chinese to bypass background checks of people associated with the Chinese government, enabling them to visit Taiwan on organized “package tours,” they added. A preliminary assessment found that many of those Chinese would not have been permitted to visit Taiwan if proper background checks were conducted by national security authorities, bureau officials said.

AVOIDING OVERINDULGENCEThe team say the approach puts calories in context and may help people to avoid overeating, or spur them to move about more in a bid to burn off the energy they have consumed. They also suggest it might encourage food producers to make products with less calories. Digging deeper, the team found people selected 103 fewer calories when the exercise-based labels were used compared with no labeling alone. Similarly, an analysis based on studies that looked at calories actually consumed revealed individuals ate about 110 calories fewer when food was labeled with exercise-based information compared with no labelling. The studies also varied considerably in how they explored the impact of exercise-based labeling.

Staff writer, with CNAA petition to hold a referendum on activating the nation’s mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant has reached the legal threshold for the referendum to be held, the Central Election Commission said on Tuesday. In a referendum held in November last year, 59 percent of voters elected to keep nuclear power in Taiwan’s energy mix and repeal a law that would have phased out nuclear power by 2025. In May, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) complied with the referendum results by amending the law, but reaffirmed its opposition to activating the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and its support for phasing out nuclear power. In contrast, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has proposed using nuclear power as a supplement to renewable energy sources. The petition by nuclear power advocate Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修) to activate the facility and begin commercial operations has reached 307,903 valid signatures, putting it above the legal threshold, the commission said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has labeled them “nobodies, conservatives, know-it-alls, hypocrites,” as well as “fifi” (bourgeois, pretentious) and “chayoteros” (a term implying that they take bribes). Trump, Bolsonaro and Lopez Obrador — who, despite having differences, share nationalist views, populist tactics and anti-democratic inclinations — have hardly limited themselves to rhetorical attacks. The Trump administration has severely curtailed press access to the White House. It has also revoked or suspended the press credentials of many journalists, based on reasoning so faulty or opaque that judges have ordered them restored. A week after Trump’s decision, Bolsonaro followed suit, canceling all government subscriptions to Folha de Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s most respected newspapers.

AFP, BEIJINGWearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a red T-shirt, an eight-year-old Chinese boy is logged in for an online coding lesson — as the teacher. He is among a growing number of children in China who are learning coding even before they enter primary school. The trend has been fueled by parents’ belief that coding skills will be essential for Chinese teenagers given the government’s technological drive. “I learned coding when I was young, so I always believed that Vita learning coding at this age was something normal,” he said. For children under six, the agency offers a special program that includes activities such as Lego building, which also uses coding knowledge and skills.

BloombergRecord commodity prices and low global interest rates have encouraged African nations to borrow like they did in the 1990s, but some are now struggling to pay up as their revenue slows along with economic growth. IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva last month said that this was a cause for concern. Of the 54 countries on the continent, 20 are near or at distressed levels, according to the IMF, which means they face difficulties honoring their obligations. “Some individual countries are getting to higher levels in terms of debt-to-GDP ratios, that’s the concern,” African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina said in an interview. Overspending and crashing commodity prices in the 1990s led to a debt crisis that prompted multilateral lenders and rich nations to write off the obligations of dozens of African countries in 2005.

AP, SANTIAGOThe Chilean Air Force on Monday evening lost radio contact with a transport plane carrying 38 people to the country’s base in Antarctica and authorities indicated several hours later that they were not optimistic about the aircraft’s fate. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said on Twitter that he was with his defense and interior ministers at the air force headquarters monitoring developments. The air force “continues the search in the sector where communication with the aircraft was lost, in order to rescue potential survivors,” the statement said. Drake’s Passage, where the airplane went missing, is infamous for severe weather conditions, including freezing temperatures and ferocious storms. The aircraft would have been about halfway to the Antarctic base when it lost contact, Mosqueira said, adding that no emergency signals had been activated.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by a majority vote in India’s lower house after midnight and still needs to be passed by the upper house before becoming law. The shutdown began at 5am and was organized by the North East Students Organization, an association of student groups from across India’s eight northeastern states. How can you grant citizenship on the basis of religion?” All Assam Students’ Union chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said. Protesters blocked traffic across the state of Assam, including in the state capital Gauhati, by burning tires and sitting on roads. Bhaskar Mahanta, director-general of police in Assam, said that several protesters had been detained or arrested, but the situation was under control.

Asked if she has enough votes to impeach Trump, Pelosi said that she would let House lawmakers vote their conscience. Trump spent part of the day tweeting against the impeachment proceedings, but did not comment late on Monday. “I think there’s a lot of agreement,” US Representative Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told reporters as he exited Pelosi’s office. Centrist Democrats preferred to keep the impeachment articles more focused on Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. Representative Jerrold Nadler was blunt as he opened Monday’s hearing, saying: “President Trump put himself before country.”

The affirmation of the investigation’s legitimacy, balanced by criticism of the way it was conducted, ensured that partisan battles would persist over one of the most politically sensitive investigations in FBI history. Monday’s review by department Inspector General Michael Horowitz knocked down multiple lines of attack against the Russia investigation, finding that it was properly opened and that law enforcement leaders were not motivated by political bias. It also rejected allegations that a former campaign aide at the center of the probe was set up by the FBI. It found that the FBI had an “authorized purpose” when it opened its investigation in July 2016 into whether the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia to tip the election in his favor. Barr and Durham issued statements rejecting the inspector general’s conclusion that there was sufficient evidence to open the FBI investigation.

“The gunman was allegedly shooting from a close range, aiming at the head and neck,” he said. “We identified the gunman using hospital cameras. We deployed two helicopters, identified his car... and when one helicopter descended over the car, he shot himself in the head,” Kuzel told reporters. Czech Minister of the Interior Jan Hamacek said the man died despite resuscitation efforts. The public Czech Radio identified the killer as a builder from the nearby Opava District.

AFP, MANILAPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte would lift martial law in the southern Philippines by year’s end, his spokesman said yesterday, more than two years after it was imposed in an attempt to stop the Islamic State (IS) group gaining a foothold there. Martial law had allowed the military to establish control with measures like curfews, checkpoints and gun controls in a nation where many civilians own firearms, either legally or illegally. However, martial law is a contentious issue in a country ruled for 20 years by former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, who Duterte has hailed as the greatest leader the Asian nation ever had. The Philippine Congress allowed Duterte to extend martial rule over the entire south after government forces recaptured Marawi, ignoring opposition warnings of a creep toward authoritarian rule. Philippine Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana earlier told reporters that he had advised Duterte against prolonging martial rule over the region.

AP, PARISThe presidents of Ukraine and Russia on Monday agreed to revive the peace process on the bloody separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and exchange all their prisoners, but they failed to resolve crucial issues such as a timeline on local elections and control of the borders in the rebel-held region. The talks focused on reviving a largely stalled 2015 peace agreement intended to end fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Monday’s deal goes further, envisaging a blanket “all for all” exchange of all known prisoners held by Ukraine and the rebels. Russia wanted the summit to increase pressure on Zelenskiy to fulfill the 2015 Minsk peace accord, which promises wide autonomy to Ukraine’s rebel-held regions. The 2015 deal was a diplomatic coup for Russia, ensuring that the rebel regions get a broad authority and resources to survive on their own without cross-border support.

The bandwidth is divided into frequency blocks of 10MHz. The highest bid for the 3.5GHz frequency band topped NT$26.58 billion (US$871.4 million) and NT$206 million for the 28GHz band, while there were no bids for the 1,800MHz band, NCC data showed. After telecoms secure the bandwidth they need, they would negotiate their preferable locations on the frequency band for seven days, Chen said. Telecoms would have to build more base stations than they did for the 4G system to offer 5G services, Chen said. “In the initial stage, the number of 5G base stations would not increase too quickly, as telecoms can upgrade 4G base stations to meet demand,” he said.

AFP, TOKYONissan Motor Co should be fined US$22 million for filing documents that underreported the compensation of former chief executive Carlos Ghosn, Japanese regulators said yesterday, with the troubled firm saying it would not dispute the penalty. Ghosn denies all the charges against him and has argued there was no final agreement on any deferred payments. Nissan also faces charges over the alleged underreporting of Ghosn’s income. The fine covers underreporting between financial years 2014 and 2017, the commission said. Nissan said in a statement that it took the recommendation “extremely seriously” and would “consider its response” after receiving a formal notice from the agency.