A 17-year-old boy who duped former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) by posing as a fortune-teller lost a libel suit against a newspaper for branding him a liar, prosecutors in Shilin said yesterday.
The teenager, identified only by his family name, Huang, was arrested last year on fraud allegations after boasting on television about his scam targeting Chen, but was later released by a juvenile court.
In May, the teenager filed libel charges against the Chinese-language Apple Daily for calling him “the teenager who conned Chen” and “[the teenager who] conned numerous people” in one of its columns.
‘PUBLIC INTEREST’
“The case concerned public interests, and prosecutors have ruled that the report was not written with the intention to defame,” a spokesman for Shilin District Court said.
Huang’s case caused a media sensation and brought comparisons with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can amid reports that he assumed nine different identities in a series of cons.
LARGE REPERTOIRE
Huang reportedly posed as a radio station director, a hotel executive, a British passport holder with two master’s degrees and a fortune-teller.
The teenager has apologized and admitted lying about his age and fabricating his academic and work experience “out of vanity.”
Chen has accused Huang of trying to swindle money out of him after arranging a Buddhist ritual for him, but the former president denied reports that said he had received a Tarot card reading from the boy.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Carrefour Taiwan is to begin using a new name from the start of July, but it cannot divulge the name until then, the chairman of the supermarket chain's parent company said today. President Chain Store Co chairman Lo Chih-hsien (羅智先) was asked by reporters after a shareholders' meeting to confirm whether the company has settled on a new name for the supermarket brand. In March, the government-registered name of two Carrefour Taiwan branches was quietly changed to "Le Chia Kang" (樂家康) in Chinese, raising speculation that has been selected as the name. Lo said that because of local regulations and contractual obligations, the
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of upcoming AI and technology events, saying he plans to meet with clients and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) during his visit. After landing at Taipei Songshan Airport, Huang posed for photos with fans and handed out Yakult drinks to reporters and supporters waiting at the scene, saying he has “a lot to do” during the trip. Asked about reports that Nvidia’s planned headquarters site in Taipei’s Beitou Shilin Technology Park could break ground on May 27, Huang said that if the company holds an event, he would
The Philippines would likely be involved in any conflict over Taiwan due to its proximity to the democracy claimed by China, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, reiterating a stance that risks angering Beijing. “In the Philippines, we do not have a choice because Taiwan is so close to the Philippines and we have almost 200,000 Filipino nationals living and working in Taiwan,” Marcos said in an interview with Japanese media in Manila on Monday. The Philippine leader’s comments come ahead of a state visit to Japan next week, where he is to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to discuss security
RSS