By Su Yung-yao and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday told foreign dignitaries that they support a democratic and free Hong Kong, and called for international cooperation on the issue. The comments echoed US Vice President Mike Pence’s remarks on Oct. 24 that the US stands by the nation in defense of freedom and democracy. China’s oppression of religious and ethnic minorities has intensified, and its use of violence against Hong Kongers is deplorable, Chen said. Chen called on the Italian delegation to urge China to improve its human rights record, appropriately handle the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and allow the territory to return to normalcy under the rule of law to maintain regional stability and peace. He has not only posted photographs of himself holding the Republic of China flag on Twitter, but has also posted that Taiwan is a democratic country that respects human rights.

AFP, TIRANANine people died and more than 600 were injured in Albania after the strongest earthquake in decades rocked the Balkan country early yesterday, destroying buildings and burying victims in rubble. The earthquake was the strongest to hit the region since 1926, Albanian seismologist Rrapo Ormeni told a local TV station. In Thumane, about a dozen rescuers used an excavator to dig through a mountain of debris in search of possible victims. Thoma Nika, a 58-year-old who lived in the building, said there were at least six people under the rubble. It was described by authorities as the strongest earthquake in the last 20 to 30 years.

AP, BEIJINGTop Chinese and US trade negotiators have agreed to talks on a preliminary deal for resolving the tariff dispute between the world’s two-largest economies, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. Financial markets have been buffeted by conflicting signals for months, with upbeat comments followed by escalations in tensions. China’s Global Times ran a front-page article citing experts dismissing “negative media reports” about the talks. It cited a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of World Economics and Politics, Gao Lingyun (高凌雲), who it said was “close to the trade talks” and said that the two sides might reach a “Phase 1” agreement soon. Gao said that Beijing and Washington had agreed that tariffs would be rolled back as part of such a deal, but had not agreed yet on which tariffs might be removed.

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterTaipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that if people do not want to vote in the elections, they should just not vote, rather than casting invalid votes. His supporters are reportedly urging others to cast an invalid vote in the Jan. 11 presidential election. Ko, who is also chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), was responding to a comment made by his close aide, former Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), in a radio interview on Sunday. Many of Ko’s supporters have told her that they do not know who to vote for in the presidential election, so some people are initiating a “spoilt votes movement,” urging others to write “Ko Wen-je” on the ballot and cast invalid votes. Ko said that the CPP failed in controlling the Hong Kong elections this time, but that does not mean it is incapable of doing so.

Riding in with assault rifles on motorbikes and in 4X4 trucks, they sent government troops and rangers fleeing from the area in eastern Burkina Faso bordering the Sahel, a belt of scrubland south of the Sahara Desert. A poor country of mainly subsistence farmers, Burkina Faso has in the past few years become the focus of a campaign by local insurgents and regional militant groups. The attacks extend toward hundreds of small-scale mines in Burkina Faso alone. About 2,200 possible informal gold mines were identified in a government survey of satellite imagery last year. The militants have carved a path through some of Burkina Faso’s richest gold fields, the analysis found.

Nearly 31 years after the Tao of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) first marched to remove the “evil spirits” — the nearly 100,000 barrels of nuclear waste placed on the island between 1982 and 1996 — from their homeland, justice is finally being served. A report on Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i’s (林萬億) investigation into the issue, released in December last year, does not mention any cannery either, but it does state that the decision to dump nuclear waste on the island was made in secret. Even then, Taipower officials tried to reassure residents that the waste was harmless. Nevertheless, it was still a huge injustice to the Tao and the government is finally owning up to its mistake, continuing its work on transitional justice. The next step, the report says, is to look into Taipower’s claim that the waste has not harmed the island’s residents, but if that is not the case, help them obtain better medical access.

By Lin Yi-chang and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe National Palace Museum’s Southern Branch is cooperating with local smartphone maker HTC Corp to offer virtual tours of famous museums worldwide beginning on Dec. 17. Visitors would be able to study the Mona Lisa more closely and from different angles than would be traditionally possible when visiting the Louvre, where the painting is kept behind glass, National Palace Museum Director Wu Mi-cha (吳密察) said on Sunday. The VR technology employed overcomes these limitations, he added. The exhibit also includes a 3D rendering of the National Palace Museum’s Kangxi Kangyur Buddhist canon, allowing visitors to view it close up and turn the pages, the museum said. The exhibit runs until May 26 next year at the National Palace Museum’s Southern Branch Building 2 and Building 3.

Global emissions need to fall by 7.6 percent annually every year until 2030 to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said. The Paris deal committed nations to limit temperature rises above preindustrial levels to “well below” 2°C and to a safer 1.5°C if at all possible. To do so, they agreed on the need to reduce emissions and work toward a low-carbon world within decades. “We are failing to curb greenhouse gas emissions,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen told reporters. G20 nations were singled out as laggards: Although they produce about 78 percent of all emissions, only 15 rich nations have outlined plans to reach net-zero emissions.

By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterA team of researchers at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) yesterday unveiled a new cryptographic technique using quantum technology, saying that they have used it to transmit an encrypted message outside of a laboratory setting. The researchers used pulsed laser light to produce photons — the smallest measurable unit of light — on which they encoded binary code, he said. The technique, which is based on a theory of differential phase shift quantum key distribution introduced by Stanford University researchers in 2002, frustrates any hacker’s attempt to steal the code, Chuu said. While the US, China and other countries have conducted similar experiments at various distances, the NTHU team is the first in Taiwan to transmit encrypted keys using quantum communication in a real-world environment, Chuu said. The team next plans to experiment using the technique to transmit encrypted keys up to 10km to the Industrial Technology Research Institute, he said.

AP, KUALA LUMPURThe Sumatran rhinoceros has become extinct in Malaysia, after the last of the species in the country succumbed to cancer. The Wildlife Department in eastern Sabah State on Borneo said the rhino, named Iman, died on Saturday of natural causes due to shock in her system. It came six months after the death of the country’s only male rhino in Sabah. The Sumatran rhino, the smallest of five rhinoceros species, once roamed across Asia as far as India, but its numbers have shrunk drastically due to deforestation and poaching. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature identifies the Sumatran as well as the Black and Javan rhinoceros as being critically endangered.

By Wang Shan-yan and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNAKaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday said that national prosperity and harmony would be doomed if corrupt candidates are re-elected in the Jan. 11 elections. “Casting ballots for the wrong candidates will impede national development,” he said. The only chance to bring about change is to cast ballots for the right candidates in next year’s elections, he added. At a later rally in Chiayi, Han said he has found the nation’s economy to be in an extremely poor shape on his campaign trail. If elected, he would introduce bilingual education programs from the first grade, Han said.

Protesters in the southern city of Nasiriyah yesterday blockaded five main bridges, shut down schools and burned tires outside public offices in anger. Overnight, two protesters had been shot dead and at least 47 others wounded by security forces in the city. Clashes also pitted protesters against security forces overnight in Karbalah, one of Iraq’s two Shiite holy cities. Yesterday’s violence came a day after the surprise visit of US Vice President Mike Pence to Iraq, where he dropped in on US troops stationed in western Iraq and met top leaders in the Kurdish region. Pence’s visit was the highest-level US trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces in Syria two months ago.

AFP, LA PAZBolivia’s Congress on Saturday approved a bill that opens the door to new elections without former Bolivian president Evo Morales, as the caretaker government met with protesters to end weeks of unrest. Congress also needs to agree on a new seven-member electoral court, after members of the previous panel were removed for allegedly manipulating results. Morales’ Movement for Socialism party holds a majority in both houses of Congress, but is divided over the left-wing leader and his political future. While some supporters would remain loyal to Morales, members of his party “will try to save MAS without Evo Morales in order to be an option in the next elections,” political analyst Carlos Toranzo told reporters. The Congress vote came a day after the caretaker government filed a criminal complaint accusing Morales of “sedition and terrorism,” after he allegedly called on supporters to maintain blockades.

By Chung Li-hua / Staff reporterThe Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus is ready to unveil a draft anti-infiltration law today, caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday, adding that the goal is to have the bill clear a second reading on Friday. The hearing would provide an opportunity to exchange opinions on the anti-infiltration bill before legislators meet on Friday for its second reading, he said. While the New Power Party (NPP) has accused the DPP of deliberately setting aside the bill and related proposed amendments, DPP lawmakers have been working on them since the end of May, Ker said. Ker yesterday said there are eight versions of similar bills proposed by the DPP caucus, NPP caucus and a number of DPP legislators. Incorporating different versions could be difficult and the DPP caucus has been pondering how to best approach the issue, he said.

AP, NAGASAKI, JapanPope Francis yesterday demanded world leaders renounce atomic weapons and the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence, saying the stockpiling of nuclear arms decreases security, wastes money and threatens humanity. Francis blasted the demise of arms control treaties while visiting Nagasaki, the site of the second of the two US atomic bombings on Japan in 1945. Francis visited Nagasaki — and later Hiroshima — at the start of his three-day trip to Japan aimed at emphasizing his call for a global ban on atomic weapons. “The possession of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is not the answer to this desire; indeed they seem always to thwart it,” he said. “Instead, the pope reinforces the church’s long-standing efforts to delegitimize the nuclear status quo and convince the world that nuclear disarmament is not only a moral imperative but should be a policy goal,” Powers said in an e-mail.