■ Crime
US fugitive goes home
American murder suspect William Kimmick was escorted back to the US by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents yesterday. Agents from Guam and Kimmick took a late night Continental Airlines flight yesterday and will directly return to Vermont to close the case. Kimmick, an electronic technician and a Vermont native, fled to Taiwan on Jan. 25. The Vermont State Court announced that he was wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of his wife at his residence on Jan. 20. Accompanied by an American friend who is living in Taiwan, Kimmick turned himself in to the Hengchun Police Precinct on Feb. 8.
■ Health
Taipei lifts SARS measures
Taipei City Government's Health Bureau yesterday lifted the temperature-taking measure and mask requirements for entering municipal hospitals and organizations belonging to the city government. Since the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced it was reducing the SARS warning to zero, SARS prevention measures could be lifted according to the CDC's regulations, bureau official Chiu Chan-hsien (邱展賢) said. But Chiu suggested that people who have fever should still wear a mask when seeing a doctor because it is flu season. However, Chiu said that although the vigilance level against SARS is lower, the public must remain on guard against avian influenza. Chiu said that the bureau was happy that the flu outbreak expected after the Lunar New Year failed to materialize, but added that because of the threat of avian flu, it will continue to ask those who work in schools, hospices and hospitals to monitor their temperatures daily.
■ Crime
Police catch dognappers
Eleven dogs of popular breeds were "kidnapped" yesterday while their owner was forced to pay a ransom of NT$271,000, but the police successfully rescued the dogs and arrested the suspects. According to the police, the victim, Kuo Chi-chiang (郭志強), owned a dog kennel in Taoyuan. A 37-year-old suspect, Lu Hung-yi (呂泓毅), and a 44-year-old suspect, Chien Hsin-yi (簡新億), realized that Kuo had several expensive breeds, so they decided to extort money from him. Lu called Kuo and said that he was working for SET-TV and would like to invite him and his dogs to a TV show. However, he needed Kuo to show him his dogs first. Lu arranged to meet Kuo at a restaurant in Taoyuan. Kuo left a golden retriever, a schnauzer and nine dachshunds in his car while he went to meet Lu at the restaurant. However, Chien stole his car, along with the 11 dogs while Kuo was away. To get his dogs back, Kuo ended up paying Lu and Chien NT$271,000 but he didn't get his dogs back until the police arrested the suspects and rescued his dogs yesterday.
■ Crime
Officials seize drugs
Customs officers reported yesterday that a large amount of contraband Chinese medicine had been seized a day earlier at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport's cargo terminal. The contraband included balms, anti-impotence pills, powdered heart-disease medicine and herbal extracts, packed in 11 boxes. Customs officers said that although the medicine could be obtained easily in China, they were banned from entering Taiwan because none of it had passed Department of Health tests. Much of the haul is expensive on the Chinese market, the customs officers said, adding that the total seizures were worth an estimated NT$10 million.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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