CRIME
Taiwanese killed in Hungary
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that a Taiwanese student surnamed Chen (陳) was murdered in Hungary earlier this month, following allegations that she was killed by her Hungarian boyfriend in an apparent murder-suicide. Taiwan’s representative office in Hungary has confirmed the identity of Chen after contacting local police upon learning that a University of Szeged student who was found dead on May 13 could be a Taiwanese national, ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) said. The office informed Chen’s parents in Taiwan of her passing and booked flights for them to travel to Vienna on May 16. Hungarian media reports identified Chen as a fourth-year medical student. She was one of the two bodies found by police on May 13 on the first floor of a two-story apartment building. Her boyfriend allegedly shot Chen with his father’s hunting rifle before killing himself with the same weapon, reports said.
SOCIETY
Kids struck by deadwood
Two sisters aged six and eight were on Sunday hospitalized after being struck by deadwood while hiking in Tainan’s Dadongshan mountain resort, the Tainan Fire Department said. Their mother said she heard a loud noise before the piece of deadwood fell on the girls as they walked between her and her husband. The younger sister had swollen eyes, a nosebleed and dizziness, but remained conscious, while the older sister sustained a skull fracture and had a wound at the corner of her mouth, paramedics said. She also showed signs of confusion when she arrived at the foot of the mountain, they said. Their conditions remain stable, hospital personnel said.
SOCIETY
Family accused of abuse
A Taichung woman and her two daughters have been accused of mistreating a live-in Indonesian caregiver, prosecutors said. The caregiver was hired in May last year to look after the woman’s son after he had a stroke. Prosecutors on Tuesday last week charged the woman surnamed Hou (侯), who is in her 70s, and her two daughters surnamed Wen (文), aged 43 and 46, with multiple offenses, including confining the caregiver to the residence, beating her, confiscating her mobile phone and passport, making her work more than 21 hours a day and making illegal deductions from her salary. The alleged abuse was revealed after the caregiver’s labor broker notified the authorities following a visit to the Hou family home, where he noticed bruises on the caregiver’s body, prosecutors said. The broker visited the residence after the caregiver’s husband told him that he had been unable to contact his wife for five months.
CULTURE
Short film earns plaudits
A short animated film by Taiwanese artist Zhang Xu-zhan (張徐展), which integrates similar folk stories from different countries, was well-received by the audience at the Roppongi Art Night in Tokyo on Saturday. Originally adapted from the Southeast Asian folktale The Mousedeer Crosses the River, the 16-minute Compound Eyes of Tropical incorporates elements from Taiwan’s folk culture dance parades and ceremonial festivals to tell the story of how a smart mousedeer tricks a crocodile to cross a river. The film won the Best Animated Short Film award at last year’s Golden Horse Awards. Zhang is also the first Taiwanese artist to be designated as one of the Deutsche Bank Artists of the Year in 2020.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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