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.
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
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 —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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