The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is continuing to press Indonesia for help in finding the missing crew of the fishing boat High Aim 6 that was recently found abandoned in Australian waters.
Captain Chen Tai-cheng (陳泰成) and chief engineer Lin Chung-li (林中立) are feared to have been thrown overboard or killed by the their Indonesian crew, ministry officials said.
The ministry has also asked the Indonesian government to help track down nine crewmembers.
According to a Jan. 19 report from the Indonesian police headquarters, police in Bitung, North Sulawesi Province, nabbed a suspect who admitted that he was one of the 10 Indonesians that the High Aim 6 recruited in early November to fish in waters near the Marshall Islands.
Police say the man told them his nine colleagues had fled and probably returned to their homes in central Java, while Chen and Lin had been killed.
Police in several Indonesian provinces have been informed about the nine suspects and the fact that Lin's cellphone had been repeatedly used between Jan. 1 to Jan. 10, ministry officials said.
According to Lin's wife, a bill for more than NT$40,000 from Chunghua Telecom shows that Lin's cellphone had been repeatedly used during that time. All 87 calls that were made from Lin's phone were made in Bali.
Lin's family has said they last heard from him on Dec. 5.
High Aim 6 departed Tungkang on Oct. 31 for Indonesia. The boat was found drifting in waters near Broome, Australia on Jan. 3, with no one aboard. Australian authorities had it towed into Broome on Jan. 10 for examination.
Chen and Lin's families fear the men were either abducted or thrown overboard -- either by pirates or by their crewmen.
According officials from the Hsiaoliuchio Fishermen's Association, the High Aim 6 arrived in Bitung on Nov. 7 and was preparing to head for the Marshall Islands to fish.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS