CRIME
Suspects ‘sent’ to China
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it is still trying to verify reports that six Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects were sent to China after being arrested in the self-governing Wa State, Myanmar. Ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) said a lack of official relationships with either Myanmar or the de facto independent Wa State government made verifying information about the matter difficult, but that the ministry would continue to work with the Ministry of Justice, the National Police Agency and the National Immigration Agency to closely follow the case and ensure any Taiwanese are extradited back to Taiwan to face trial. On Wednesday, a WeChat account affiliated with the Wa State government posted a video that it said showed the extradition of nearly 300 telecom fraud suspects, including six from Taiwan, to China. According to the report, the suspects were handed over to Chinese police after being apprehended in Wa State’s territory. The arrests were made as part of a joint crackdown on telecom fraud launched by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security in cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Myanmar, Laos and Thailand in August, the report said.
CRIME
Two killed in fight
An early morning street fight involving sanitation workers in Taipei yesterday has left two men dead and one in critical condition, police said. A report of people fighting on Lanzhou Street in Datong District (大同) was received at 4:36am, police said. When officers arrived at the scene, they found two men — a 56-year-old surnamed Kao (高) and a 57-year-old surnamed Liao (廖) — lying in a pool of blood with no vital signs, police said. Kao and Liao, who sustained lacerations to the chest and left thigh respectively, were later pronounced dead, police added. A third man, a 58-year-old surnamed Wang (王), was in a critical condition after being stabbed in the chest, police said, adding that two paring knives, one folding knife and a baton were found at the scene. According to police, there was mutual enmity between Kao and Wang, who worked together as municipal garbage collectors. Police said a preliminary investigation indicated that Kao and his friend Liao went to Wang’s residence intending to start a fight, but the exact cause was still under investigation.
CRIME
Teacher guilty of sex crime
A teacher who had sex with a sixth-grade student multiple times in school and later gave birth to his child has been sentenced to a jail term of 17-and-a-half years, the Taoyuan District Court said. In a verdict handed down on Thursday last week, the court said that the teacher forced the student — who was under the age of consent — to have sex with her nine times during class breaks from Feb. 25 to June 23, 2020. The teacher became pregnant in May 2020, with a paternity test later showing that the student was the father, the court said. The case was exposed by the student’s father, who reported it to police, the verdict said. The court said that it handed the teacher a 17-and-a-half-year sentence in light of the severe impact of her actions on the student’s physical and mental development. Following the conviction, which can be appealed, the Taoyuan Department of Education on Wednesday said that the teacher had been dismissed and banned from working in schools for life.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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