Fri, Oct 06, 2023 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  SPACE

  Chinese rocket no threat

  The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that a Chinese space rocket detected passing “near” Taiwan’s air defense identification zone did not pose a threat to national security. The ministry said in a press release that it had detected the launch of a Chinese-built Long March-2D carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province early yesterday morning. Although the rocket’s trajectory passed “near” the southwestern part of the zone, it did not pose a threat to national security due to having already left the atmosphere, the ministry said, without providing further information. It closely watched the whole launch process with its joint intelligence systems, it said. Xinhua reported that the Long March-2D rocket, which was carrying a Yaogan-39 satellite, took off from Sichuan at 8:24am. The Yaogan series are optical remote-sensing satellites that are likely also used for military reconnaissance.

  SPORTS

  Emilio Vargas fired

  Emilio Vargas has been fired by the CTBC Brothers baseball team after testing positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive substance found in cannabis. In a public announcement, the CPBL said that the player from the US in August failed a random drug test jointly conducted by the league and a drug laboratory run by Cheng Shiu University’s Super Micro Mass Research and Technology Center. All of the results from tests Vargas submitted to passed standards set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), except his THC levels, the CPBL said in a report submitted to WADA on Sept. 4. On Thursday last week, tests were run on Vargas’ second sample by China Medical University Hospital in Taipei in accordance with WADA regulations, which also came back positive for THC, the CPBL said on Wednesday, after receiving the result a day earlier. The Brothers in a statement said that based on the league’s anti-drug regulations and punishments for players who test positive for drugs conducted by a local or foreign-certified lab, Vargas is barred for life from playing in the CPBL. Use of a Category 2 narcotic is punishable with a maximum three-year prison sentence and prosecutors are investigating the case.

  SOCIETY

  ‘Croc’ pic draws fine

  A Kaohsiung resident has been fined NT$3,000 for disturbing public order after falsely claiming on Facebook to have photographed a crocodile at the city’s Aozihdi Forest Park (凹仔底森林公園). In a verdict issued on Wednesday, the Kaohsiung District Court said that the man, surnamed Liu (劉), staged a photo on July 29 of a crocodile sitting on a rock with its mouth open using a small toy crocodile he had purchased. He later posted the photo to “Street Observation Academy,” a Facebook group with more than 1 million members, with the caption: “This is Aozihdi Park. I can’t believe it, but I don’t dare get any closer to see if this is or isn’t” real. The post, which had garnered 567 reactions, also attracted attention from the media, prompting the city’s Animal Protection Office to send personnel to search the 10-hectare park, the court said. After the search failed to turn up any sign of a crocodile, police summoned Liu, who told them that he had staged the photo and uploaded it as a practical joke, the verdict said. The court fined Liu NT$3,000 for contravening the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法). The verdict can be appealed.
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