CRIME
Martial artists brawl
Police in Changhua yesterday said that they had arrested 16 people after a man was stabbed to death in a brawl between two Indonesian martial arts groups in front of the city’s railway station on Saturday night. The deceased, a 32-year-old Indonesian man, died from blood loss in hospital after being stabbed in his back during the fight, police said. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old Indonesian man severely injured in the brawl was being treated in hospital, police said. All 16 of those arrested are Indonesian nationals. Among them is a 24-year-old man arrested in Taichung on Sunday who is suspected of inflicting the fatal wound, police said. Changhua Police Precinct Director Chang Ming-sheng (張明盛) said that weapons believed to have been used in the fight, including several knives, had been recovered from locations across Changhua. The 16 suspects have been transferred into the custody of the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of murder, assault and injury leading to death.
SOCIETY
Cross-strait marriages up
This year saw a slight year-on-year increase in the number of marriages registered between Taiwanese and Chinese, after eight years of decline, according to a report by the Mainland Affairs Council to the Legislative Yuan. There were an average of 12,000 marriages registered between Taiwanese and Chinese between 2008 and 2012, the report said, adding that the number dropped to 10,000 per year in 2013 and 2014, then declined further annually after that. From 2020 to last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that saw borders closed, only 2,000 such marriages were registered on average each year. However, from January to June this year, the number rose to 3,532, which was 1.85 times the 1,238 marriages registered over the same period last year, the report said. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese visiting Taiwan in the first six months of this year was 70,104, it said. Travel ties between Taiwan and China have been largely frozen over the past three years.
EDUCATION
School director suspended
The Taichung Education Bureau on Friday last week handed a one-year suspension to the student affairs director at Feng Yuan Senior High School over the suicide of an 11th-grade student on Feb. 18. The punishment was handed out by a review committee convened by the bureau in response to what it called the “completely unacceptable” action taken by the school following the student’s death. A review into the matter was prompted by a claim from the deceased student’s father that his son had been subjected to months of bullying by school staff. The father said that his son was singled out by school officials, who frequently searched his belongings or framed him for misdeeds he did not commit. In March, the bureau temporarily reassigned seven school officials to other positions, while suspending the director of student affairs for three months, pending an investigation. However, after rejecting the findings of a report submitted by the school on Tuesday last week — which said that staff had not bullied the student — the bureau convened a review committee. The committee found that the punishment given to the student affairs director by the school — a demerit on his record — was “not proportionate” given that he was found to have emotionally harmed the student through improper discipline, the bureau said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
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