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.
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
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