SOCIETY
Driver detained after crash
The Yunlin District Court yesterday approved a motion filed by local prosecutors to detain a tour bus driver involved in a deadly traffic accident, due to the severity of the incident. Yunlin prosecutors applied to detain the driver, surnamed Chen (陳), 63, after the tour bus he drove collided with a car on the southbound lane of the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No. 3) near Douliou (斗六) in Yunlin County a day earlier. Four people were killed and 22 weer injured in the accident. The prosecutors said two of the dead were a 47-year-old woman surnamed Chu (朱) and her 11-year-old son, surnamed Lai (賴), who were on the tour bus to go to an amusement park in Yunlin. The two other fatalities were the driver of the car, also surnamed Chen (陳), and a passenger surnamed Lo (羅), aged 61, prosecutors said. Prosecutors expressed concern the bus driver could flee justice and collude with witnesses to fabricate testimony, so they filed a motion with the court for his detention. At the hearing, the tour bus driver admitted his negligence had caused the accident. The court subsequently approved the request to detain the 63-year-old.
CRIME
Taichung police seize guns
Two men have been arrested in connection with a large cache of illegal firearms and ammunition seized from a vehicle in a police stakeout operation in Taichung on Saturday. Police said that officers recovered rifles, shotguns, submachine guns and bullets from a vehicle driven by one of those arrested, a man surnamed Tsai (蔡). Police added that Tsai had been waiting for a second man, surnamed Huang (黃), a fugitive previously convicted of weapons and drug offenses, who was also arrested at the scene. Police said they had received tip-offs about the mobile armory, and formed a task force to find and arrest Huang and Tsai. Officers shot the tires on Tsai’s vehicle, after he rammed into two parked cars while attempting to flee, police said. Huang and Tsai are being investigated by the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office for alleged violations of the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
CRIME
Two indicted for remittances
Two people who allegedly helped Filipino workers in Taiwan make overseas remittances were indicted for violations of a domestic banking law by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday. The prosecutors’ office said it indicted two suspects, surnamed Chan (詹) and Wu (吳), for making foreign remittances, which only banks are allowed to do in Taiwan according to the Banking Act (銀行法). The prosecutors asked the court to confiscate any illegal gains they made. In the indictment, prosecutors said Chan and Wu set up a company in 2019 and developed a third-party application called “FastPay” targeted at Filipino workers in Taiwan to help them make underground remittances. The app enabled migrant workers to enter the amount of money they wanted to remit, and pay a commission of NT$99 (US$3.06) to NT$149 for each transaction at convenience stores, the prosecutors said. The amount would be transferred to the users’ designated bank accounts in the Philippines. The two suspects handled over NT$4 billion in transactions and made a total of NT$70.59 million in profits from July 1, 2020 to Nov. 4 last year, the indictment said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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