■Crime
Prosecutors call for execution
The Nantou District Prosecutors' Office indicted serial killer Chen Jui-chin (陳瑞欽) and suggested the death penalty late on Thursday night. According to Nantou Prosecutor Hsieh Wei-cheng's (謝謂城) indictment, Chen was charged of raping and murdering his girlfriend Chen Yi-ling (陳怡伶), whose body had been found on May 12 in the Shanlinshi resort area, on May 11. The indictment said that Chen Jui-chin discovered that Chen Yi-ling was wealthy so he decided to murder her and steal her assets to solve his own financial problems. Chen Jui-chin tried to choke Chen Yi-ling to death. When Chen Yi-ling was unconscious, he then raped her. Afterwards, Chen Jui-chin hit Chen Yi-ling to death with a rock. He then dumped her body after he made sure that she had stopped breathing. In addition to the rape and murder, Chen Jui-chin also confessed that he had murdered his first, second and thrird sons to benefit from their life insurance policies. Currently, this part of the crimes was still being investigated by the Chiayi District Prosecutors' Office.
■ Travel
Cycling family nears finish
The four-member Taiwanese family is nearing the finish line of their round-the-world adventure. Huang Chin-pao (黃進寶), a welder, along with his wife and two teenaged sons, plan to take several days of rest in Spokane, Washington, before heading on to Seattle on Tuesday on the last leg of their 25,000km global trek that began in July last year. The family is scheduled to fly from Seattle to San Francisco on July 30 for a stay of several days before returning to Taiwan on Aug. 3. If everything goes smoothly, the family is expected to complete the 7,000km cross-America ride -- that so far has taken them from New York State, through Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Minot, Shelby, and on to Spokane -- and the 13-month globe-trotting journey about a month earlier than scheduled.
■ Environment
Quake jolts eastern Taiwan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 on the open-ended Richter scale jolted eastern Taiwan at 10:41am yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau reported. The epicenter of the quake was located about 2km southwest of a seismograph station in Suao, Ilan County, at a depth of 72.6km, seismologists reported. The quake was felt almost everywhere in eastern, northern and central Taiwan. It had an intensity of 3.0 in Taipei County and in Ilan City and Ilan County. The quake registered an intensity of 2 in Taipei City, Keelung City, Taoyuan County and Miaoli County, Hualien County and Taichung, Nantou, Changhua and Yunlin counties.
■ Politics
Hualien poll numbers drawn
Polling numbers were drawn yesterday for the Hualien Country commissioner by-election where five candidates are in the race for the post left vacant by the death of the KMT's Chang Fu-hsiung (張福興) in May. The result of draw determines a candidate's placement on the ballot. Independent candidate Wu Kuo-tung (吳國棟) -- a KMT renegade -- drew the No. 1 spot while KMT-PFP alliance candidate Hsieh Shen-shan (謝深山) drew the No. 4 spot. DPP candidate You Ying-lung (游盈隆) will be listed third and Green Party candidate Chi Shu-ing (齊淑英) will be second. Independent Hsu Chia-chen (許家琛), who had abstained his right to draw, got No. 5 after an official from the election committee drew on his behalf. The election will be held Aug. 2.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS