CRIME
Taichung stabber sentenced
A 20-year-old man surnamed Hung (洪) was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for attempted murder and endangering public safety, after he went on a rampage on a Taichung Metro train in May, stabbing two passengers. Hung did not appear at the hearing when the verdict was handed down by the Taichung District Court in the first trial of the case. The incident occurred on May 21, when Hung used three knives to randomly attack passengers on a Taichung MRT train, injuring two people, before he was subdued by other passengers, prosecutors said. He chose to carry out the assault on the 10th anniversary of the Taipei Metro attack, during which a passenger named Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) killed four people and injured 22 in a stabbing frenzy on a Taipei MRT train in 2014. The guilty verdict and 10-year prison sentence can be appealed.
CRIME
Burglary suspect questioned
A Vietnamese woman was placed under investigation by prosecutors on Wednesday after being questioned by police in relation to a recent burglary in which valuables and coins worth hundreds of thousands of New Taiwan dollars were stolen from a friend’s warehouse. According to the Tainan Police Department’s Sinhua Precinct, the 44-year-old woman is believed to have stolen goods and money totaling NT$460,000. Among the stolen items were about 2,200 NT$50 coins, 400 NT$5 coins, 1,600 NT$10 coins, 100 NT$1,000 bills and a gold necklace. Police said it took a week to solve the case after the victim reported it. The case has been transferred to prosecutors for further investigation, with the stolen goods recovered from the woman’s residence and returned to the victim, authorities said.
TRANSPORTATION
Airport bus stop to move
The 1819 bus to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to depart from Taipei Bus Station instead of outside Taipei Main Station from 3am on Wednesday next week, Kuo-Kuang Motor Transport said. The 1819, which runs 24/7, is to depart from Taipei Bus Station in Q Square Mall, a few hundred meters from the current stop next to East Gate 3 at Taipei Main Station, the company said. It added that the 1813, 1813D and 1815 routes connecting Taipei with Keelung and Jinshan would be relocated to the Taipei bus stop currently designated for drop-offs near Taipei Main Station. The Kuo-Kuang terminal is to be demolished, and a new footbridge across Civic Boulevard is to be constructed, a Taipei City Government proposal showed.
DRUGS
Five indicted for marijuana
Five Thai nationals were indicted by the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office for attempting to smuggle 20.28kg of marijuana into Taiwan in breach of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. Police officers and customs officials at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport found marijuana in checked luggage belonging to four different Thai passengers arriving on different flights on Oct. 6 at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, said Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division. In addition to the four suspects, a fifth man who is believed to have been monitoring the transport of the marijuana, was arrested on Oct. 7 at the airport shortly before boarding a flight out of the country, Chang said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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