Taiwan celebrated its National Day holiday Thursday against the background of threats from China, which claims the self-governing island republic as its own territory.

Thursday’s commemorations included military displays, but no heavy military equipment such as those seen in years past.

Addressing the threat from China, President Lai Ching-te took a firm but measured line while offering cooperation on areas from fighting infectious diseases to maintaining “regional peace and stability.”

“We hope that China will live up to the expectations of the international community, that it will apply its influence and work with other countries toward ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and end conflicts in the Middle East,” Lai said.

“And we hope that (China) will take up its international responsibilities and, along with Taiwan, contribute to the peace, security and prosperity of the region and the globe,” the president added.

The celebration marks the establishment of the Republic of China, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and relocated to the island nation of Taiwan as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland during a civil war in 1949. Taiwan was run under martial law until transitioning to full democracy in the 1980s and 1990s but maintains the original constitution brought from China and the ROC flag.

Judge OK’s release of more Trump evidence

The federal judge overseeing the 2020 election case against former President Donald Trump on Thursday approved a limited release of a compilation of evidence against him, but stayed her order for a week in case Trump’s legal team wants to challenge the disclosure.

Even if the court filing at issue — an appendix to a 165-page brief by special counsel Jack Smith that was unsealed last week — becomes public, it appears unlikely to contain significant new revelations. The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, said all nonpublic sensitive material in the appendix, like grand jury transcripts and witness interview reports, would remain entirely redacted.

Trump’s legal team has objected to unsealing any portion of the appendix, arguing that doing so amounts to interference in next month’s presidential election.

The jostling over the material is the latest step in the case against Trump for his attempts to overturn his loss of the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Judge rejects longer Ga. registration period

A federal judge said Thursday that she won’t order the presidential battleground state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November’s elections despite recent disruptions to registration caused by Hurricane Helene.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross rejected arguments that the state should reopen registration through next Monday. The registration deadline was last Monday and she said in her ruling from the bench Thursday afternoon that there would be no extension.

A lawsuit filed by the Georgia conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the New Georgia Project had argued that damage and disruptions from Helene unfairly deprived people of the opportunity to register.

Ross said in her verbal ruling Thursday that the groups didn’t sufficiently prove their members were harmed and said there are no state laws allowing Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican defendants in the case, to order an extension of the voter registration deadline.

Writer indicted on child-porn allegations

A bestselling mystery writer who was arrested this summer in New Hampshire for alleged possession of child sexual abuse materials has been formally indicted on six felony counts.

A Rockingham County grand jury returned the indictments against Brendan DuBois, who has been detained since he turned himself in to Exeter police in July, according to court documents. A lawyer for the 65-year-old DuBois did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

He is due to be arraigned Oct. 23.

DuBois’ website says he is a New York Times bestselling author who has written 29 novels. He co-wrote several of those with James Patterson, including “Cross Down,” “Count Down,” “The Summer House” and “Blowback.”

Severn River Publishing previously announced that it was removing his books from its website.

1 dead, 12 rescued in Colo. tourist gold mine

Twelve people were rescued Thursday night after being trapped for about six hours at the bottom of a former Colorado gold mine when an elevator malfunctioned at the tourist site, authorities said. One person died in the accident.

The elevator was descending into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near the town of Cripple Creek when it had a mechanical problem around 500 feet beneath the surface, creating a “severe danger for the participants,” and one person was killed, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said.

The 12 adults who were trapped were about 1,000 feet below ground, but they had access to water and the atmosphere was considered good. They were safe and in communication with authorities with radios while waiting, Mikesell said.

Mikesell declined identify the one fatality.

Buffalo DEA officer convicted of corruption

A former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Buffalo, N.Y., was convicted of corruption Thursday following a second trial on charges he used his position to protect drug traffickers he believed were associated with organized crime.

Jurors found Joseph Bongiovanni, 60, guilty on seven of the 11 counts he faced.

Prosecutors said Bongiovanni, for at least a decade, shielded childhood friends who became drug dealers and other suspects with ties to organized crime, tipping them off to investigations and falsifying DEA reports. He was accused of taking at least $250,000 in bribes that prosecutors said he used for necessities, as well as trips and other luxuries.

Jurors acquitted him of a bribery charge, and additional fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges.

Bongiovanni’s attorney, Robert Singer, said he would appeal.

‘Diddy’ sex-crimes trial slated for May 5

A May 5 trial date was set Thursday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking case, and a prosecutor argued that the jailed hip-hop mogul’s lawyers were trying to exclude a “damning piece of evidence” by claiming it was leaked by the government.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson struck back against the defense’s claims during Combs’ first appearance before Manhattan federal court Judge Arun Subramanian, who will preside over his trial.

Johnson took issue with the defense lawyers’ argument in a submission late Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security leaked a video to the media of Combs punching and kicking his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.

Combs’ lawyers said the video, aired by CNN in May, and other alleged government leaks “have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pretrial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.”

But Johnson urged the judge to see through the defense claims, calling them “baseless and simply a means to try to exclude a damning piece of evidence” from the trial.

“Not a single one of those alleged leaks are from members of the prosecution team,” Johnson said.

N.J. mayor, wife deny child-abuse charges

The mayor of Atlantic City, N.J., and his wife, the superintendent of schools, pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the alleged physical and emotional abuse of their teenaged daughter in a joint three-minute arraignment.

Mayor Marty Small Sr. greeted supporters in the courtroom with a smile, but then stood grim-faced during the arraignment, with his wife, La’Quetta Small, standing on the other side of an attorney.

Their attorneys, Ed Jacobs and Michael Schreiber, entered the not-guilty pleas for them. The Smalls did not speak during the hearing.

Sea lion fatally shot on California beach

Federal officials this week offered a $20,000 reward for information about the fatal shooting of a sea lion in Southern California over the summer.

The wounded male sea lion was discovered Aug. 7 between two lifeguard stations at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Orange County, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The animal, estimated to be about 2-years old, died the next day, and an examination revealed it had a gunshot wound to the back, NOAA Fisheries said in a statement Wednesday.

The agency said its law enforcement division is offering the reward “for information leading to a civil penalty or criminal conviction” in connection with the shooting.

— From news services