Taiwan’s embassy in Haiti yesterday presented Haiti’s national police and army with protective equipment such as helmets, tactical knee pads, eye protectors and bulletproof vests to support their fight against powerful gangs.
Haiti’s prime minister’s office said 400 individual kits had been delivered, for a total of 800 kits from Taiwan in two years.
“This donation is not only a material contribution; it also reflects a sincere and lasting friendship between Haiti and Taiwan,” Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille said in a statement.
Photo: REUTERS
The Caribbean nation is one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies. It also maintains a trade office in Beijing.
A handful of countries have pledged a total of 2,900 police for a UN-backed police mission in Haiti. However, so far, only 400 Kenyan police have been deployed.
Kenyan and Haitian media have reported a lack of key equipment and delays in paying their wages.
With little more than a month left in the mission’s mandate, results have been scarce with many pledges left unfulfilled.
Nearly 580,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, and millions are going hungry.
Haiti’s army was reinstated in 2017 after it was dismantled during the 1990s. However, it is the national police that leads efforts against the country’s gangs.
As of the end of May, the national police had 12,000 officers, down by more than 1,000 from the start of the year, UN data showed.
‘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
RSS