CRIME
Taiwanese jailed in Thailand
Three Taiwanese have been arrested in Thailand on suspicion of fraud, in a joint operation carried out by Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau and local law enforcement agencies, Thai police said yesterday. The three men, who were arrested in a hotel room in downtown Bangkok on Friday, are believed to be the leaders of a fraud ring that was raided in Cambodia and Malaysia in February, police said. Police said that information obtained during the two raids indicated that the suspects in both countries belonged to the same fraud ring, which was being run by Taiwanese. Taiwanese ringleaders were using Thailand as a recruitment base for hiring locals to carry out telecom scams that targeted mostly Thai nationals, police said.
DEFENSE
Trainer to be ready next year
A prototype for a domestically developed trainer aircraft is expected to be ready next year, Aerospace Industrial Development Corp chairman Anson Liao (廖榮鑫) said. Following a visit by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to the firm’s Gangshan factory in Kaohsiung on Friday, the company is confident that it will deliver 66 trainers by 2026 as agreed upon, he said. It would deliver a prototype by September next year and flight tests are expected to start in 2020, Liao said. The company partnered with 71 local and foreign businesses for parts to decrease costs, while still meeting the Ministry of National Defense’s standards, he said. The ministry has allocated a budget of NT$68.6 billion (US$2.31 billion) for the project, which is expected to improve the nation’s defense and weapons development capabilities.
HEALTH
New measles case confirmed
A new measles case has been confirmed at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Friday. The patient, in his 20s, on Sunday last week sought medical help after developing a rash and a fever, the CDC said. Tests confirmed on Friday that he had the measles, it added. The man has since been quarantined at home for observation and treatment, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. The patient had not left the nation in the past few months, and had been vaccinated against the measles at a young age, he said, adding that the patient is suspected of having contracted the virus when he visited the hospital on April 2. The patient has since come into contact with 21 people, whose health condition is to be monitored until May 14, when the virus’ incubation period ends, the CDC said.
CRIME
Suspected shoe thief nabbed
A Keelung man surnamed Chen (陳) was arrested on suspicion of theft after police discovered 868 pairs of used women’s shoes in his residence. Police searched Chen’s parents’ home, where he lives, following a tip-off from the management committee of a residential complex in the city’s Anle District (安樂) that he could be a shoe thief, the Keelung City Police Bureau Fourth Precinct said. The committee had installed surveillance cameras after receiving multiple complaints from female residents that their shoes were missing, police said. Officers seized the shoes believed to have been stolen, police said. Chen, 40, was quoted by police as saying that he is a shoe fetishist and admitted to stealing shoes from his neighbors since June 2013.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard