WEATHER
Storm likely to pass by
Tropical storm Tokage, which is hovering over waters west of the Philippines, is not likely to hit Taiwan, although the moist air in its outer periphery is affecting Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday as it released heavy rain advisories. The bureau said the storm’s periphery, combined with seasonal northeasterly winds, would bring about an 80 percent chance of rain throughout the nation yesterday, with Keelung, mountainous parts of New Taipei City, eastern Taiwan and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) in the south expected to see heavy rain. Daniel Wu (吳德榮), a meteorologist and adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, predicted Tokage would soon weaken, but that a new storm is likely to form in the coming week.
CRIME
Taiwanese finish jail terms
Thirty-four Taiwanese have been deported from Thailand, after serving two years in jail for their involvement in telecoms fraud in Chiang Mai, Thailand, officials said. The Taiwanese — 32 men and two women — recently completed their two-year sentences in Chiang Mai Province, after being convicted of engaging in telecoms fraud in a rural part of the province, Thai police said. The deportees were taken to Bangkok, handed over to Taiwanese police at the airport and put on a plane to Taiwan, Taiwan’s representative office in Thailand said. In recent years, there have been a number of cases in which Taiwanese have been arrested on charges of fraud in Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines. Some of those arrested have been deported to China at the insistence of Beijing.
CRIME
Principal, wife sentenced
The Yunlin District Court on Wednesday sentenced a former vocational high-school principal and her husband to jail terms of four years and eight months, and five years and two months,, respectively for taking kickbacks from lunch providers totaling NT$38 million (US$1.15 million). Chen Hsiu-chuan (陳秀娟) and her husband, Huang Shu-yao (黃曙曜), were charged with taking kickbacks ranging from NT$4 to NT$9 for each of lunch box supplied to students at Da-Cheng Vocational High School in Huwei Township (虎尾) from September 2005 to May last year. The couple were also charged with taking NT$1.4 million in illicit profits from renting the school’s storage house to breakfast vendors between June 2008 and December 2009. The court also ruled that the couple must pay fines totaling NT$28.4 million, in addition to serving time in jail.
ENTERTAINMENT
Taiwanese drama in Spanish
A Taiwanese television drama, The Way We Were (16個夏天), is to be broadcast in Spanish in El Salvador on Sunday, according to Taiwan’s embassy in the Central American nation. Airing the series abroad is part of the government’s efforts to promote Taiwan’s TV industry and introduce Taiwanese culture and people to foreign allies, Taiwan’s Ambassador to El Salvador Florencia Hsieh (謝妙宏) said. The series, produced in 2014 with Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs sponsorship, won awards for best supporting actress, best director and best television series at the Golden Bell Awards last year. It has been broadcast in Spanish since August in 10 Latin American nations as part of efforts to promote cultural exchanges between Taiwan and those nations, the embassy said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
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
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