■ POLITICS
More women voted: CEC
More women than men voted in last month’s presidential election, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday. CEC figures showed that only 6,504,575 out of a total of 8,670,480 eligible male voters cast their ballots — a turnout of 75.02 percent. The figure was slightly lower than the number of females who voted, which was 77.65 percent. A total of 6,717,276 out of 8,651,142 eligible female voters went to the polls.
■ CRIME
Man arrested in Manila
A Taiwanese man suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and credit card fraud was arrested in the Philippine capital, a police spokesman said yesterday. Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said Yang Chih-chien was arrested on Sunday during a raid on his house in a posh subdivision in the Manila suburban city of Paranaque. Bartolome said the raiding team recovered 70kg of ketamine, a prohibited drug, with a street value of 350 million pesos (US$8.43 million). Police also recovered equipment and supplies used in the duplication and manufacture of fake credit cards and passports. Bartolome said the suspect was also facing various criminal charges in Manila and the central city of Cebu, but had posted bail.
■ FOOD
Milk passes residue test
Milk reported to have been tainted by antibiotics has passed drug residue tests, a Council of Agriculture (COA) official said yesterday. Huang Ying-hao (黃英豪), director of the council’s Department of Animal Industry, said health and agricultural authorities collected samples of the raw and processed milk in question for tests and the results “were either negative or showed no drug residue.” The allegedly tainted milk was sold under two fresh milk brands — Highland and General Milk (將軍牛乳) — which are both marketed by leading food manufacturer AGV Products Corp (愛之味). The milk was processed by an AGV-contracted dairy processing plant in Miaoli County. The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported on April 16 that one of the plant’s suppliers in Yunlin County supplied milk from diseased cows that was purchased at low prices from neighboring dairy farms. The revelation prompted AGV to recall the two brand and led health and agricultural authorities to launch an investigation.
■ SOCIETY
Students injured in accident
Fifteen students from National Taishan Senior High School were injured early yesterday when the bus carrying them to school crashed into a truck on the Dahan Bridge linking Banciao and Sinjhuang. Firemen and other emergency workers sent the 15 students, including four girls, to three hospitals for treatment. Most of the students suffered lacerations to the face, chest and knees. Several of them required stitches. Police said that a city bus owned by Sanchung Bus Co was carrying more than 30 students from Banciao City to their school, Taishan Senior High School in Taishan Township (泰山), when the accident occurred. Kung Chun-min (龔俊銘), the 38-year-old bus driver, said that as he drove onto the bridge, he saw that the roadway was covered with a film of grease. “I was driving at 40kph when I noticed that the truck ahead of me had stopped. I started to brake from 100m away, but could not stop the bus,” he said. Chiu Ching-han (邱清含), 33, the driver of the truck, said he also noticed the grease and had stopped the truck in order to caution traffic policemen on the other side of the road.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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