■Diplomacy
Delegation heading to Africa
A group of economic planners, led by Council for Economic Planning and Development Vice Chairman Chang Jing-sen (張景森) leaves today for Sao Tome and Principe to help the country map out an economic development plan, a diplomat said yesterday. Francias, Lee (李宗儒), director general of the African Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the group will study Sao Tome's potential for economic development under a bilateral cooperation program. The two countries are also carrying out an academic cooperation project and an anti-malaria project, Lee said.
■ Crime
Confessed killer indicted
Chen Jui-chin (陳瑞欽) was indicted yesterday on five counts of murder for allegedly killing family members for insurance money, a court official said. Prosecutors are seeking five death sentences for Chen, who is accused of murdering two wives, a son and two stepsons between 1985 and 1998 to reap insurance benefits worth more than NT$13 million (US$380,000). Chen, 53, was charged with homicide last month in connection with the May death of his girlfriend. He has confessed to all the killings. Investigators say Chen killed his first wife in 1985 while she was in hospital and picked up an insurance payment of NT$2 million. Over the next several years, four insurance companies paid him a total NT$11.21 million for the deaths of the second wive and the three boys.
■ Cross-strait ties
Illegal caught after 12 years
An illegal Chinese immigrant who has lived in Taiwan for 12 years using a fake identity was nabbed Thursday by Miaoli police. Ouyang Zhixiang (歐陽志翔), 31, a native of Shanghai, sneaked into the country in 1991 after paying a "snakehead" ring 100,000 yuan (US$12,077). He then paid NT$40,000 for the stolen national ID card of Liu Chih-chiang (劉智強). He worked at several small-scale factories, gradually developing his skills and know-how. Now the owner of an information-technology company, he even won second prize in a national online-games competition two years ago.
■ Weather
Tropical depression forms
A tropical atmospheric depression that has formed in the sea near Guam could develop into a typhoon and may affect Taiwan next week, the Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday. The tropical depression was located west-northwest of Guam, moving westward at a speed of 10kph as of yesterday afternoon, the bureau said. Meanwhile, hot temperatures continued nationwide yesterday, with forecast highs of 36?C in the north and 33?C to 34?C for the center and south, while the west could experience torrential afternoon downpours, the bureau said.
■ Summer fun
Flashers shy of flashes
An effort to launch the flash-mob phenomenon in Taipei, which has swept through the US and Europe, was thwarted yesterday when details of the proposed event were leaked. Only a few flash mobsters showed up in front of the Shinkong Department Store in Taipei at 4pm and they left when they saw a large crowd of reporters waiting to cover the event. A university student, who gave his name as Hsieh, said he saw an instruction on a flash-mob Web site telling flash mobsters to gather in front the store, bow to the stone lion at the store entrance and shout "Halelluja!" five times before dispersing.
Agencies
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods