■ Crime
Filipinos arrested for murder
Two Filipinos working aboard a fishing vessel based in Taitung County were arrested yesterday on charges of colluding to murder a colleague, police said. Liqe Alvin Barpolapa, 33, and Arellana Joeyilagan, 32, are accused of having stabbed Egot Danny Zalvado, 36, to death with fruit knives in the vessel's cabin early yesterday. According to reports, the two men first subdued Zalvado and then intimidated the other crew members aboard the Yutsaiwang not to try to stop them. Two fishery workers fled and reported the matter to the police. When police officers arrived, the victim had already lost consciousness due to excessive bleeding. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at a nearby hospital.
■ Politics
Legislator-at-large sworn in
The Legislative Yuan yesterday swore in Huang Fung-shih (黃逢時) as a new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-at-large. Huang takes over from Lee He-shun (李和順), who lost his seat after resigning from the KMT. Lee cancelled his membership on Oct. 2 in order to run as a regional legislative candidate in Tainan County after the party refused to allow him to do so as a KMT candidate. Huang is the fifth son of the renowned puppeteer Huang Hai-tai (黃海岱) and was a close adviser to former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味).
■ National Parks
Yangmingshan most popular
Hikers and tourists made 4.06 million visits to Yangmingshan National Park in the first nine months of this year, making it the most popular national park, the Ministry of the Interior reported yesterday. Yangmingshan, named after the ancient Chinese philosopher Wang Yangming (王陽明), is popular mainly because the park can be reached by a 20-minute drive from downtown Taipei, in addition to its volcanic scenery, thick forests and mountain trails, officials said. In its latest survey, the ministry found that Taiwan's six national parks recorded a total of 12.06 million visits from January until last month, with Yangmingshan attracting about 33 percent of visitors. Trailing Yangmingshan was Kenting National Park, which attracted 3.17 million visitors, and Taroko Gorge, with 2.54 million. Kinmen National Park posted 19 percent growth in the number of visitors during the nine-month period, representing the greatest growth in this regard among all six parks.
■ Copyrights
Anti-piracy unit planned
A new police unit specia-lizing in the prevention of intellectual property rights infringements will begin operations with 220 members on the first of next month, Ministry of Economic Affairs officials said yesterday. The decision was made in an inter-ministerial meeting hosted by Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥). Since Jan. 1 last year, police officers have been assigned to the task in the form of an ad hoc task force. According to Lu Wen-hsiung (盧文祥), deputy director-general the Intel-lectual Property Office, the task force has produced good results and he hopes Taiwan will perform even better after the new unit begins its work. Lu said the US is expected to announce in December the results of its review on whether to downgrade Taiwan's status or remove the nation completely from the "Special 301" priority watch list.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS