Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) recently offered to help with the investigation into the murder of a Taiwanese diplomat in her apartment in the Dominican Republic in April, a case that has remained unresolved for more than seven months, a ministry official said yesterday.
During a recent trip to the country, one of the nation’s diplomatic allies in the Caribbean, Lin raised the nation’s concerns over the case when he met Dominican President Danilo Medina, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs director-general James Wu (吳進木) told a press conference.
Wu said Lin told Medina that Taiwan was willing to assist local police in conducting DNA tests to help solve the murder if the Dominican Republic does not have adequate technology, which has reportedly been one reason for the slow investigation.
Medina has promised Lin that the police will track down the murderers as quickly as possible, Wu said.
Julia Ou (區美珍), 55, a secretary working in overseas compatriot affairs, was found stabbed to death at her home in Santo Domingo in April.
Wu said that police in the Dominican Republic have found fingerprints they believe may lead them to the killers, but they have no direct evidence pointing to the murderers.
Ou was reportedly knocked unconscious by burglars with stones outside her apartment before she was dragged into her home and stabbed to death.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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