A man who called himself "Hui" yesterday faxed a number of media outlets and claimed responsibility for the shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) in Tainan on March 19.
According to the fax, "Hui" said that he "invested" lots of money in illegal bets on a victory by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
However, he was stunned because there seemed to be growing support for Chen and Lu. To make sure he would not lose his bet, he decided to "do some-thing" to change the result of the election.
As of press time yesterday, the Keelung City Police Department had determined that the fax was transmitted from a fax machine at an OK convenience store in the city's Baifu community at 5:30pm on Tuesday.
They have viewed the store's security videotapes and have located a suspect.
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung City Police Department's Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) denied a link between a warning about a possible shooting and the attack on Chen and Lu in Tainan.
According to a news story in the Chinese-language media yesterday, the National Police Administration's (NPA) Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) received a warning about a potential shooting on March 19.
It immediately asked city precincts to investigate and stay alert.
Kaohsiung's CIC investigated, and responded to the alert by saying that the warning was a false alarm.
The shooting took place in Tainan City only hours after the warning was issued.
The CIB yesterday confirmed that the warning had been disseminated by a high-ranking NPA official.
CIC head Chen Chia-chin (
He said that such warnings were frequently received, and that every warning was always completely investigated.
"To be precise, we got the order from CIB to investigate the warning only four hours before the shooting took place in Tainan," said Chen Chia-chin.
"We completed all necessary investigations and reported the results accurately -- it was a false alarm," he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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