CRIME
‘Crush’ cited threats case
A senior high-school teacher was arrested on Sunday on charges related to threatening e-mails reportedly sent to Chinese activist Wang Dan (王丹), the Hsinchu City Police Bureau said yesterday. Wang, 45, a visiting assistant professor at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, received two e-mails on Thursday last week with threats including “I will let you die,” the bureau said. Wang reported the e-mails, which police traced to a 45-year-old teacher in Taipei surnamed Lu (呂), who was arrested and taken in for questioning, the bureau said. Lu told police that she developed a crush on Wang after listening to a speech he made three years ago and had sent several e-mails to him. Wang yesterday in a message on Facebook thanked Hsinchu police for swiftly finding Lu, adding that he does not know the woman. The case has been sent to prosecutors for a criminal investigation, the bureau said.
HEALTH
Cops help in suicide rescue
When police in Greater Kaohsiung pulled over a speeding motorcyclist on Sunday they did not expect they would end up escorting him to his destination and help him save a life. Police yesterday said that they intercepted the motorcyclist, identified by his surname Huang (黃), after he sped through a red light at an intersection in Sanmin District (三民). Huang, who was reportedly extremely agitated when stopped, told the officer that he was trying to get to a nearby building before his cousin jumped to his death. Instead of issuing a ticket, police activated their sirens and escorted Huang to the building, where they found Huang’s cousin standing on a 19th floor window ledge shouting. Working together, they managed to calm the man down and persuade him to return indoors, police said. A spokesperson for the police reminded anyone considering suicide that there is nothing shameful about seeking help. The suicide prevention hotline can be reached by dialing 1995 from any mobilr phone or landline in the nation, he said.
MEDIA
‘Kano’ cleans up in Taipei
The Taiwanese baseball drama Kano grossed more than NT$13 million (US$428,600) at theaters around Taipei over the weekend, topping the box office ahead of the current Hollywood blockbusters. Kano beat French-American mystery-thriller Non-Stop and DreamWorks’ Need for Speed in box office receipts during the three-day period starting on Friday last week. In the whole of Taiwan, Kano grossed NT$37 million over the three-day period, bringing nationwide box office receipts to NT$200 million since the movie’s premiere 18 days ago. Set in 1931 during the Japanese colonial era, the movie tells the story of the Chiayi Agriculture and Forestry Public School baseball team.
TOURISM
New visa process agreed
To help the growing cruise market, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications have reached an agreement to outline measures to simplify the visa process for travelers arriving on cruise liners, said Wei Shuo-liang (魏碩良), a spokesman for the Port of Keelung. The measures would be similar to a visa-free program and would not require advanced applications, Wei said, adding that visitors would receive a temporary travel pass after their cruise operator notifies the NIA of travelers’ information. Chinese passengers would not be included in the program, Wei said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods