Police in Kinmen County and Taichung are searching for a thief who stole golden medallions weighing around 112g from the Tianshang Shengmu Temple (Heavenly Holy Mother Temple) on the remote island of Wuciou (烏坵), 133km north of Kinmen, police said yesterday.
Only one military ship arrived at Taichung Harbor from Wuchiou on Saturday morning and the Taichung Harbor police said yesterday they believed the thief might have traveled aboard the ship to Taichung. They dispatched officers to investigate the case in coordination with the Kinmen police.
There is only one military supply ship that travels between Taichung Harbor and the small rocky island of Wuchiou every 10 days. The journey normally takes eight to nine hours.
An elderly woman living on Wuchiou, who went to the temple at around 5am on Saturday, found that three large and more than 10 smaller medallions, which were contributed by local people and hung on the statue of Matsu, the Chinese goddess of sea, were missing and reported the incident to the police.
The burglary has enraged people living on the island, Wuchiou Township chief Chen Hsing-chiou (陳興坵) said, adding that he suspected the thief was likely a Taiwanese, rather than a Chinese fisherman, because of the recent rough seas. Both Wuchiou and Kinmen lie closer to China's southeastern province of Fujian than to Taiwan.
Besides the marine forces stationed on the island, there are only about 40 residents in Wuchiou Township, which is under the jurisdiction of the Kinmen County Government.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
RSS