Six Indonesian crewmen suspected of murdering the skipper and chief engineer of a Taiwanese fishing boat last month have been detained, while three others have been referred to Indonesian authorities in Taiwan, the Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Six of the nine Indonesians employed on the Suao-registered Te Hung Hsing No. 368 are suspected of involvement in throwing the fishing boat’s skipper, Chen Te-sheng (陳德生), and chief engineer, Ho Chang-lin (何昌琳), overboard in the eastern Pacific, Yilan prosecutors said after questioning the crewmen on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said a senior Indonesian crewman had an argument with Chen over work assignments. The sparring developed into a conflict in which the Indonesian is alleged to have attacked Chen with a plastic float. Chen fell unconscious and other Indonesian workers allegedly threw him overboard, followed by Ho.
The boat was later intercepted by two Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessels and towed back to Suao (蘇澳), where the suspects were referred to prosecution authorities for questioning. The three who were handed over to the Indonesian authorities in Taiwan are suspected of illegally taking control of the vessel and causing damage to the property, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The Te Hung Hsing No. 368 left Nanfangao in Yilan County on Jan. 18 to fish in the eastern Pacific. It lost contact with the ship’s owner in Yilan on July 16. The CGA was informed two days later that the ship’s skipper and chief engineer, the only two Taiwanese on board, had not been in contact for three days.
At the time, the fishing boat was 10,945km southeast of Oluanpi at the southernmost tip of Taiwan. A CGA patrol vessel caught up with the fishing boat in waters 623 nautical miles (1,154km) southwest of Kiribati on July 27. CGA officers did not find any sign of the boat’s skipper or chief engineer upon boarding and searching the boat. The CGA then sent another patrol vessel to help with the investigation.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS