The number of gun crimes handled by law enforcement agencies around the country totaled 331 in the first nine months of this year, down by 30 percent, or 135 cases, from the year before, Ministry of the Interior officials said yesterday.
Most of the cases involved robbery, homicide, extortion, kidnapping, offenses against personal liberty and rape or assault and battery, in that order, ministry officials said.
Of the total, 281 were solved with the arrests of the perpetrators, marking a success rate of 85 percent -- a figure that is 14 percent higher than the same period last year, the officials noted.
One hundred and fifty cases, or 45 percent, involved robbery and 114 involved homicide, they added.
Taipei County had the largest number of crimes involving fire-arms in the January to September period, with 73 cases, followed by Taoyuan County, with 35 cases and Pingtung County, with 22 cases. Taipei and Kaohsiung cities each had 18 cases.
Police statistics show that most of the weapons and ammunition seized during crackdowns were from Taipei City and Taichung City. A total of 1,850 guns of various types were seized in the January to September period, down roughly 20 percent year-on-year. Locally made or modified guns made up the bulk of those confiscated, the statistics show.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
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