■ Crime
Hu Gua innocent of cheating
Entertainer Hu Gua (胡瓜) was yesterday found innocent of cheating fellow mahjong gamblers with the help of hidden cameras. However, the Taipei District Court ruled that Hu's brother and two friends were guilty of fraud in the same case. Hu's brother, Hu Chi-hsuan (胡技烜), was sentenced to two years, four months in jail. Two of his friends, Tien Shu-ling (田淑玲) and Hsu Chih-huang (許志煌), were sentenced to 22 months and 18 months respectively. Prosecutors said Hsu watched cameras in an adjacent room and told the entertainer's brother over a radio device about his competitors' mahjong positions, helping him win.
■ Crime
First lady not going to court
First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) will not appear in court today, the Presidential Office said yesterday, adding that her lawyer had filed for a leave of absence on her behalf, citing health reasons. Wu pleaded not guilty to charges that she misappropriated NT$14.8 million (US$454,000) from the president's "state affairs fund." She was rushed to hospital after almost fainting during a court recess on Dec. 15. On medical advice, she did not attend the second and third sessions of the trial on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29. Wu was released from hospital on Dec. 31.
■ Defense
Arms bill receives boost
Lawmakers across party lines yesterday passed an initial approval of the long-stalled arms procurement. As they have yet to reach consensus in the committee stage regarding its content, it will now be sent for cross-party discussion rather than to the floor for second reading. As lawmakers have decided to go into recess on Jan. 20 and bills are not allowed to be scheduled for a vote on the floor during the four-month negotiation phrase, the bill is unlikely to be passed during this legislative session. The bill calls for a NT$6.27 billion (US$192 million) supplemental budget to help fund the purchase of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, the upgrading of PAC-2 anti-missile batteries and the design of submarines, as well as NT$700 million to build an airstrip on Tai-ping Island (太平島).
■ Society
Billiards star `punished'
Billiards star Jennifer Chen (陳純甄) will be warning sports fans not to gamble illegally as part of a deal she reached with prosecutors. Chen was linked to a professional baseball gambling scandal last year and did not return to Taiwan until Monday, when she met with prosecutors. The prosecutors decided to suspend Chen's charges, saying that she had no prior record and cooperated fully with their investigations. However, she will have to post two anti-gambling articles of at least 100 Chinese characters five days a week under her own name on two Internet sports forums for two months.
■ Crime
Heist suspect nabbed in PRC
The Criminal of Investigation Bureau yesterday confirmed that the suspect in the nation's biggest cash heist was captured in China's Yunnan Province, on Wednesday night. The suspect, Lee Han-yang (李漢揚), a former police officer who worked for security company Group 4 Securicor-Taiwan, allegedly stole NT$56 million (US$1.72 million) from his vehicle in Taipei on Jan. 2 before fleeing to China with his brother Lee Chin-tsan (李金瓚), also a former police officer. Authorities arrested the pair in Kunming, along with two alleged accomplices, but did not find the cash, according to the bureau.
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