SOCIETY
Pufferfish kills man
One person has died and eight were poisoned after consuming poisonous pufferfish — known in Japanese as fugu — in Nantou County on Saturday night, local authorities said. The poisoning occurred after a restaurant owner, surnamed Hung (洪), in the mountain town of Cinjing (清境) invited eight neighbors to a meal at his home that included pufferfish, Nantou County police said yesterday. The following morning, one of the guests, surnamed Yang (楊), noticed a numbing sensation in his mouth, hands and feet, and decided to go to Hung’s house to check on him, and after Hung failed to answer the door, Yang entered the house to find him lying on the ground without vital signs and called for an ambulance, police said. Hung was later pronounced dead, while the eight guests at the dinner were taken to hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening symptoms, police said. They had asked prosecutors to take samples of the fish for testing, the police said.
DIPLOMACY
Ukranian mayor visits
The Mayor of Bucha in northern Ukraine Anatoliy Fedoruk arrived in Taiwan with a delegation on Saturday, with the aim of attracting investment in construction projects planned by the city, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. After Moscow launched an invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Russian forces occupied Bucha for nearly a month, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, according to international media reports. During the delegation’s four-day trip, its members are to visit Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI), Taiwan External Trade Development Council and the Taipei Computer Association. The government has worked closely with the Bucha City Government in recent years, including providing a donation of US$600,000 for the construction of an air-raid shelter and a children’s school in August, the ministry said. Taiwan also helped Bucha renovate 11 shelters, one kindergarten and nine houses in April last year, it added.
TRAFFIC
Smart inspection to start
Starting from March next year, the Highway Bureau is to employ smart road-inspection vehicles to collect data on the condition of the roads of Taiwan to facilitate timely repairs and more efficient road upkeep. The vehicles would be equipped with panoramic cameras, light detection and ranging systems and other instruments to automatically detect problems with roads such as potholes, and wear and tear, the bureau said. Artificial intelligence (AI) would then be employed to analyze the raw data, enabling maintenance units to better grasp the situation and determine whether issues require immediate attention, so repairs can be tackled quickly, it said.
CRIME
Ticket scalpers arrested
Police have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of scalping tickets to the 30th BFA Asian Baseball Championship opener between Taiwan and South Korea at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. As of yesterday, a total of 23 people have been arrested on suspicion of violating the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), Taipei police said, adding that the suspects are mostly ordinary people, rather than professional ticket scalpers. A field-level seat ticket for Sunday’s game is priced at NT$600 on the ticketing platform tixCraft. The 13,000 tickets available for the game sold out minutes after going on sale at 12pm on Friday.
‘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
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
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
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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