A Hong Kong-based Taiwanese pop music star was released from jail and placed in the custody of his mother yesterday, after agreeing to reimburse an airline for raucous behavior on a Taipei-bound flight on Thursday that re-routed to Anchorage to eject him into the hands of the FBI.
Ronald Cheng (
Witnesses said Cheng, who was seated in the first-class cabin, had started smoking and singing after having several glasses of spirits.
When a flight attendant asked Cheng to settle down -- after a male passenger sitting next to him complained the star had drunk too much and had been putting his hands on the passenger's body -- Cheng allegedly pulled her to the floor by her hair, starting a struggle with other passengers.
He was subdued after the pilot confronted Cheng, who allegedly tried to punch him. The pilot then hit Cheng on the head with a flashlight.
The crew used plastic handcuffs to hold Cheng in his seat until the plane reached Anchorage, where he was arrested by FBI agents.
Cheng was charged with assault and interfering with flight crew members. He was jailed in the Cook Inlet Pre-Trial Facility in Anchorage.
An FBI affidavit said the singer's blood alcohol level exceeded .3 percent soon after the incident occurred. Drug tests were also performed, but the affidavit concluded he was intoxicated by alcohol only.
The singer, who is now a US citizen, could have faced 20 years imprisonment and US$250,000 in fines if convicted of breaching US civil aviation regulations, according to reports on Thursday.
Cheng appeared Friday before a federal magistrate and agreed to pay a US$2,500 fine. The magistrate ordered him to pay restitution to the airline, though it was not immediately clear how much he would have to pay.
Cheng, from Hsinchu County, is the son of a senior executive at Universal Music. His career in music began in Hong Kong in 1996.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS