CRIME
Man deported from US
A Taiwanese man has been deported from the US after serving prison time for illegally arranging shipments of parts to Iran that can have nuclear and military uses. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say Chen Yi-lan (陳宜蘭), also known as Kevin Chen, arrived in Taipei on Wednesday. Chen spent almost two years in a US federal prison following his arrest in February last year. Investigators say that since 2007, Chen had arranged at least 30 banned shipments to Iran. The parts included electrical connectors, detonators, small engines and seals that can be used for missiles and unmanned drones. Iran could also use some parts in its nuclear program. Court records show Chen falsely labeled the shipments as bound for Taiwan or Hong Kong. Chen pleaded guilty in May last year to conspiring to export banned items to Iran.
ENVIRONMENT
Rare sea slug species found
A rare species of sea slug previously found only in Okinawa, Japan, was spotted last month near the coastal regions of the Dongsha Marine National Park (DMNP), park officials said yesterday. The discovery of the sea slug, Ercolania subviridis, near the Dongsha Islands(東沙群島, known as the Pratas Islands in English), indicates that its habitat has shifted south, the park’s research reports said. In 1959, Japan’s leading researcher on sea slugs and bubble snails, Kikutaro Baba, discovered the sea slugs off the coast of Okinawa, according to the Marine National Park Headquarters (MNPH). After checking the records, DMNP researchers confirmed the new sea slug species found on the Dongsha Islands was similar to Ercolania subviridis, the MNPH said. The yellow-green sea slug lives in waters a few meters deep and feeds on green algae. It is 0.2cm to 0.3cm long.
CRIME
Foreigners arrested for theft
Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted a group of five foreign nationals on charges of aggravated theft, law enforcement officials said. The five people were arrested at a hotel in Taipei in connection with seven alleged cases of theft, one day before their planned departure from the country, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, Kal Chang-nam of South Korea and Daniel Sanchez of Colombia met in South Korea and came to Taiwan with three Colombians on Aug. 10. They checked into a Taipei hotel and allegedly the next day began breaking into houses and apartments in the Da-an (大安) and Nangang (南港) districts, the indictment said. During the arrest of the five suspects, law enforcement officials found a large amount of cash and stolen items, such as brand-name watches and jewelry, prosecutors said. DNA evidence found in a burgled apartment was matched to Sanchez, prosecutors said. He and the other four suspects have all confessed to the offenses and have been detained, prosecutors said.
ENVIRONMENT
Shark finning to be banned
The nation will impose a ban on shark finning next year, the practice of removing sharks’ fins and throwing the bodies back into the sea, according to the Fisheries Agency. Taiwan will be the first Asian country to introduce the regulation that will require fishermen to unload the shark fins and bodies simultaneously, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Tsay Tzu-yaw (蔡日耀) said. Violators could face heavy fines or the suspension of their fishing licenses, he said. The new regulation is currently being implemented on a trial basis at several ports in Taiwan, Tsay said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the