Kaohsiung residents yesterday called on the city government to beef up security after police officers were called out several times to investigate disputes that ended in bloody attacks, including a street brawl.
Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) urged residents not to let themselves become angry, and ordered police to increase patrols.
“I ask again for Kaohsiung residents and all friends, please do not turn to violence. It is important to have harmony in our city and to show people that we are a ‘sunny’ city,” Han said. “Many tourists are coming to Kaohsiung, so our residents must by all means eliminate violence and brutality.”
An argument between a carpentry instructor and an apprentice at a KTV parlor in Sinsing District (新興) allegedly escalated into a fist fight before the instructor grabbed a cleaver from the kitchen and sliced the other man.
The apprentice, 24, was in intensive care as of press time last night.
A morning dispute at a seafood restaurant in Sanmin District (三民) between the proprietor and a customer on the proper way to give a toast turned into a fight with broken beer bottles allegedly being used to cut each other’s faces.
A street brawl was reportedly sparked by an argument between two over a woman, which escalated despite friends trying to intervene.
Eyewitnesses said about 20 people were involved, and one man attacked another with a katana, inflicting several cuts.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions