SCIENCE
Students bag six golds
Taiwanese students took home six golds at the International Junior Science Olympiad in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday, winning the second-most medals out of 52 participating nations for those aged 15 and under. The event was held from Dec. 2 to Wednesday. Fan Yi-yang (范奕揚) was crowned the Olympiad’s “absolute winner” and won four other accolades on top of his gold medal, including the top spots for practical chemistry and biology tests, a theoretical test award and the highest overall score. The Taiwan delegation for this year’s Olympiad consisted of six students from Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Chiayi. The Ministry of Education said this year’s participants were guaranteed enrollment to the high school of their choice and a NT$200,000 scholarship.
CRIME
Stabber’s sentence upheld
The High Court on Thursday upheld an 11-year-and-four-month prison sentence for a man who fatally stabbed a Malaysian college student outside a Keelung karaoke club last year. A 23-year-old Malaysian student at National Taiwan Ocean University, surnamed Chen (陳), had gone out with friends to a karaoke club in Keelung on Nov. 14 last year. While waiting outside the club at 4am, Chen got involved in an argument with another man, Chen Chih-hung (陳志鴻), whose friends had barged into Chen’s KTV booth earlier that night. In the altercation that followed, Chen Chih-chung stabbed Chen’s right thigh with a switchblade and slashed the leg of Chen’s friend, surnamed Yen (顏). Chen, whose femoral artery was pierced in the stabbing, lost large amounts of blood, and died in hospital three days later of hypovolemic shock and multiple organ failure. The Keelung District Court found Chen Chih-chung guilty in August and sentenced him to 11 years in prison. Although the sentence was appealed by prosecutors and the defense, the High Court in its verdict on Thursday said that there was “nothing inappropriate” about the lower court’s ruling. The latest ruling can be appealed.
CRIME
Court upholds jail terms
The Supreme Court has upheld the jail terms of four fraudsters in Taichung who unlawfully detained and assaulted a man, which resulted in his death. Court documents said that the victim, surnamed Lin (林), handed over his bank account and password information to the Taichung-based fraud group on Dec. 6, 2022. The next day, Lin was unlawfully detained by the defendants, Liu (劉), Cheng (鄭), Jen (任) and Huang (黃). Huang, Cheng and a juvenile surnamed Yang (楊) covered Lin’s mouth, handcuffed him and shackled his feet, the documents said, adding that Liu and Jen beat Lin and stomped on his head. Lin later died from his injuries, and his body was dumped at a cemetery, the court said. In an earlier ruling on Feb. 1, the Taichung District Court said that when the gang discovered that Lin was not breathing and had no heartbeat, Yang administered first aid to Lin, indicating that they did not intend to kill him. Based on that, the four were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 years and six months to 16 years and six months. Prosecutors filed an appeal, saying that the gang had an “indirect intention” to kill Lin. The defendants also appealed the verdict, seeking lighter sentences. The High Court’s Taichung branch upheld the original decision by the lower court on Aug. 13. After further appeals by prosecutors and defendants, the Supreme Court also upheld the original verdict on Dec. 4. The decision is final.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
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