A Philippine crew member who allegedly killed and attacked crewmates aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean last month has been arrested by the coast guard, but six foreign crew members are still missing, the Fisheries Agency said yesterday.
The 255-tonne Wen Peng had 24 crew members onboard — three Taiwanese, 10 Filipinos and 11 Indonesians — when a conflict broke out on Feb. 20 as the vessel sailed about 900 nautical miles (1,665km) off the south coast of Sri Lanka, the agency said.
The boat’s chief officer allegedly killed one Filipino and one Indonesian, and ordered some of their crewmates to jump into the water, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
As of Feb. 22, the Taiwanese — the captain, the chief engineer and an observer for the agency — as well as 12 other crew members had been rescued by Taiwanese vessels Shang Feng No. 3 and Hung Fu No. 88, with the latter asked to help monitor the Wen Peng with the suspect onboard until the coast guard arrived, it said.
Eight officials from the agency and the Coast Guard Administration on Feb. 23 flew to Sri Lanka and boarded another Taiwanese vessel, the Chao Feng No. 277, which reached the area at 8:30am on Saturday, it said.
Coast guard personnel spent about 13 hours negotiating with the suspect, as the Wen Peng’s cabin door was locked from inside and the boat’s rails were electrified, the coast guard said.
At 9:20pm, the suspect surrendered, jumping overboard and swimming to the Chao Feng, where he was arrested, it said.
Coast guard patrol boat Hsun Hu No. 8, which departed from Kaohsiung on Feb. 21, yesterday met with Chao Feng No. 277 and Hung Fu No. 88 at 6:20pm and took over the suspect, the coast guard said.
Six crew members — one Filipino and five Indonesians — who were reportedly forced to jump into the sea have been missing for a long time, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Lin Kuo-ping (林國平) said, adding that rescue operations might be called off, as 72 hours have passed since they went missing.
NOVEMBER ELECTIONS: The KMT urged the CECC to exclude Taiwanese from the arrivals cap, as they would lose their right to vote if they could not return by July 26 The COVID-19-related border control measures and the cap on the number of international arrivals are not being eased, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it reported 112 imported cases of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is CECC spokesperson, said a meeting was held yesterday morning in which the Cabinet decided that current border control measures would remain in place. He said the main considerations were global COVID-19 cases increasing 21 percent last week, imported cases of Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 continuing to be detected
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday commenced mass production of 3-nanometer chips that are more powerful and efficient than predecessors, beating rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to a key milestone in the race to build the most advanced chips in the world. South Korea’s largest company said in a statement that it was beginning with 3-nanometer semiconductors for high-performance and specialized low-power computing applications before expanding to mobile processors. By applying so-called Gate-All-Around transistor architecture, Samsung’s 3-nanometer products reduce power consumption by up to 45 percent and improve performance by 23 percent compared with 5-nanometer chips, it said. Samsung’s push to be first
Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung (張學友) has been criticized by the “Little Pink” — a term used to describe young, jingoistic Chinese nationalists on the Web — for saying “Hong Kong jia you [加油, an expression of encouragement].” To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule on Friday, China Central Television made a series of programs in which it interviewed Cheung and other celebrities. Cheung, speaking in Cantonese, said in the interview that “Hong Kong has been through a lot in the past 25 years, including ups and downs” and ended with the phrase “Hong
‘STRONG SUPPORT’: Liberal International expressed concern over Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s airspace, saying they could undermine regional peace Liberal International on Saturday passed a “World Today Resolution” recognizing the threat that China poses to Taiwan, while supporting Taipei’s inclusion in international organizations. Liberal International was established in 1947 as a federation of liberal political parties from around the world. Last week, it held its 63rd congress in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was attended by 221 representatives from 58 countries. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in her capacity as chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), delivered a speech in a pre-recorded video at the congress’ opening on Thursday. DPP spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-fen (謝佩芬) yesterday said the party, which has been a member of
RSS