■ 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.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
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