■ Crime
Chou up for parole
The Ministry of Justice yesterday said that former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chou Po-lun's (周伯倫) application for parole will be reviewed tomorrow. The ministry said Wednesday is the day when officials usually hold their weekly meeting so they will take the chance to review Chou's case as well. Chou was convicted of accepting NT$16 million from Chiaofu Construction Corp -- the backer of the Ronghsing Park development project -- when he was a Taipei City councilor in 1988. Chou and six former city councilors and six city government officials were jailed in connection with the scandal. On Aug. 3, 2001, the Taiwan High Court sentenced Chou to six years in prison. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court.
■ Crime
Thais arrest two for drugs
Thai narcotics police nabbed two Taiwanese at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport last Friday for attempting to smuggle 700g of heroin out of the country, Thai customs officials said yesterday. Acting on tip-offs, police nabbed Yeh Fu-tsai, 42, and Yang Chi-hung, 38, as they attempted to board separate flights to Taipei, an official said. Yeh was caught with 350g of heroin sewn into the shoulder pads of his suit while Yang was found to have 380g hidden in his suit. The men said they had been paid NT$100,000 (US$3,240) each to smuggle the drugs.
■ Politics
TSU to run five candidates
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Secretary-General Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) yesterday said that the TSU will take part of year-end county commissioner and city mayor elections and the plans to nominate five candidates for Keelung, Hsinchu, Yunlin County, Tainan and Pingtung County. Chen said the TSU plans to nominate its "best talent" for the elections. Plans call for ex-legislator Holmes Liao (廖宏祥) to run for Hsinchu County commissioner while Chien Lin Whei-jun (錢林慧君) may run for Tainan mayor. Former legislator Cheng Cheng-lung (程振隆) will run for the Yunlin County commissioner and Huang Chao-chan (黃昭展), chairman of the northern Kaohsiung chapter, plans to campaign in Pingtung County.
■ Crime
Malaysian navy rescues ship
The Malaysian navy boarded a Taiwanese fishing vessel which had been seized by Chinese crew members who mutinied and locked up the captain and other Taiwanese sailors, a Malaysian official said yesterday. Acting on a request from Taipei, the navy tracked down the 48m Dong Yih in the Malacca Strait on Sunday and boarded it near Pulau Pisang off Johor state, an official said. The boat, with four Taiwanese, 19 Chinese and six Filipinos crew members departed Singapore on Jan. 11 for the Indian Ocean. The Chinese mutinied three days later and attempted to take the boat back to Singapore.
■ Transportation
Kaohsiung buses go digital
Kaohsiung City launched bus services with digitized operations yesterday. The city government spent around NT$40 million (US$1.26 million) in developing the country's first digitized bus services, including 130 bus stop signs, TV monitors in 448 buses that will play real-time programming and a bus hotline offering information to passengers. Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), said his government wants to curb the increase in scooters and encourage more people to use public transport.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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