Tue, Jul 23, 2024 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Staff writer, with agencies
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  TRAVEL

  Flight delayed after ‘joke’

  A 70-year-old man, surnamed Chung (鍾), was arrested for saying he had a grenade in his luggage when checking in for an EVA Airways flight at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday, a day after a Tigerair Taiwan flight from Kaohsiung was delayed for two hours because a man in his 50s had said he had a grenade. Chung joked that he had a grenade in the luggage he was about to drop off at the check-in counter. The airline ground crew informed the airport police, who came to search his bags. He was also taken to a police station for questioning and would be charged with contravening the Civil Aviation Act (航空法), Aviation Police Bureau officer Su Feng-yi (蘇?億) said. Separately, about 170 passengers on board a Tigerair Taiwan flight at Kaohsiung International Airport were delayed on Sunday for about two hours after a passenger, surnamed Shen (沈), claimed to have a grenade in his bag, police said. The scheduled departure of Flight IT288 from Kaohsiung to Okinawa, Japan, at 9:45am was postponed to 11:11am due to the man’s claim, the Aviation Police Bureau’s Kaohsiung Precinct said. When flight attendants offered Shen assistance with his carry-on luggage and asked if there was any water inside, he responded: “No, but there is a grenade.” As a result, all passengers were required to disembark the plane and recheck their luggage, the aviation police said. Shen was transferred to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of contravening the Civil Aviation Act.

  EDUCATION

  Monkey targets reimbursed

  A six-month campaign promoting “human-monkey coexistence” at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung has compensated 17 students whose food was stolen by Formosan macaques during confrontations on campus, the university said on Sunday. The campaign is being held from Feb. 1 to Wednesday next week and has given up to NT$100 to each person, most of whom were attacked in monkey raid hot spots such as near convenience stores, a spokesperson for the school said. Students must provide food receipts and photographs of the monkeys to be eligible for compensation. The university said the compensation scheme aims to encourage “yielding to macaques” for self-protection, as students often engage in dangerous tugs-of-war with the animals during the monkey raids. The university is near Shoushan, which is commonly known in English as “Monkey Mountain,” which is home to several Formosan macaque colonies. The university experiences regular monkey attacks and has plans to develop robots or automatic control systems to drive the macaques away.

  CRIME

  Man jailed for sex assault

  A math teacher at a Nantou County private tutor school received a 10-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage student, in a ruling released on Sunday. The man surnamed Chen (陳) and his wife operated the school, which provided courses on the regular education curriculum and also doubled as a childcare center for younger students. After investigating, the authorities found that the school did not have a business license or approval from the local government. Chen taught math courses and drove a van, transporting students from the school to their homes. A female student said Chen sexually assaulted her in the classroom and when he drove her home in the van last year, investigators said. The district court convicted Chen on three counts of having sex with a female or male under the age of 14, based on the Criminal Code.
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