LABOR
CLA probes doctor’s death
The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday launched an investigation into the sudden death of a doctor in Greater Kaohsiung, who may have died from overwork. The Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital doctor, surnamed Lin (林), was found in a coma in his dormitory room on Thursday morning. He was declared dead after being rushed to an emergency room at Chang Gung for resuscitation. He was 31 years old. Lin’s family suspected that he died from overwork because of his habitual overtime and tight work schedule. However, the hospital said Lin could not have died from overwork because he had been assigned a normal workload. The council also said it had launched in March a mechanism for investigating suspected cases of death from overwork. As of July 31, the council had completed investigations into 22 cases, with seven confirmed as sudden death from overwork.
SOCIETY
Lovers’ Day events planned
Changhua County officials said it will launch a series of events to celebrate Chinese Lovers’ Day, which falls today. Chuang Jen-shun (莊仁舜), chief of Tianwei Township (田尾), said his office will decorate the verge of a main road in Tianwei with flowers and will organize a love song duet contest. The township office will also hold a “World War II kiss” contest, in which couples will imitate Life magazine’s famous World War II “Victory Kiss” and have their photograph taken, with prizes awarded to 10 of the couples. In Changhua City, singers and dancers are scheduled to perform at an event held by the city office. Changhua Mayor Chiu Chien-fu (邱建富) said the first 100 couples to arrive at the event will get their photos taken, which will then be printed on special commemorative mugs.
CRIME
Smuggling ring broken up
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) reported on Thursday that it had broken up an international people-smuggling ring with help from immigration agencies in the UK and Thailand. Five ring members were arrested in Taoyuan on Thursday as the result of an investigation that started after authorities received information that a man was helping to smuggle Chinese people to the UK through an airport in Thailand. The ring was active in Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia and the UK and made between US$50,000 to US$70,000 per person, and took in more than US$687,995 in total, the agency said. According to the agency, the ring recruited employees through online job banks, posted advertisements in newspapers to buy passports for alteration and even wrote manuals for the illegal travelers, teaching them how to catch connecting flights and memorize the information in their fake passports.
CRIME
Customs officials probed
The Keelung Customs Office director and six customs officials were yesterday placed under investigation on suspicion of profiteering. Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday led agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the Agency Against Corruption to raid the offices and residences of customs director Tsai Chiu-chi (蔡秋吉) and six other officials. The seven were still being questioned by investigators at press time. Investigators said Tsai enjoyed a close relationship with Tonglit Logistics Co and was suspected of helping the company import restricted and banned items into the country. They said they also suspected Tsai and the other officials of helping Co-tech Copper Foil Co import restricted copper materials into the country.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard