■DEFENSE
Two ensigns AWOL
The Navy Fleet Command Headquarters yesterday urged two ensigns who absconded to return to their posts as soon as possible. “If they have problems, they should seek solutions rather than run away,” it said in a press release. Ensign Lu Hung-hsiang (呂鴻祥), 25, and Lu Hsi-fan (盧晰璠), 27, did not return to their posts on Thursday and Friday. The Military Prosecutors’ Office listed the couple as wanted on Thursday. Local media reported that the two, who are boyfriend and girlfriend, had suffered from sea sickness since they began serving on board the Feng-jiang and Hsiang-jiang respectively in April. The Navy’s Fleet 131 said the two had filed a request to be transferred to a desk job a few weeks after beginning their posts, but their requests were rejected because they were not diagnosed by any military doctors as unfit for battleship assignment. Navy Command Headquarters said the couple’s behavior violated the Military Criminal Code (陸海空軍刑法), which could result in a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.
■SOCIETY
Domestic violence rising
The Ministry of the Interior said yesterday that 65,359 cases of domestic violence were reported in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 5,056 cases, or 8.4 percent, from the same period last year. The main reason behind the increase was that the number of cases of violence between spouses, former spouses or cohabitants rose by 2,826 compared with last year, the ministry said. Of the cases reported from January to September, 38,185, or 58.4 percent, involved violence between spouses, former spouses or cohabitants; and 12,729 cases, or 19.5 percent, concerned violence against children or teenagers. Another 1,977 cases, or 3.02 percent, involved assaults on the elderly. Among these categories, only the number of cases against children or teenagers was down from the same period last year. About 76 percent of the 61,856 domestic violence victims in the first nine months of this year were women. Female victims between 30 and 50 years of age accounted for nearly 50 percent of the total female victims, statistics showed.
■FOREIGN AID
Medics head for Thailand
The International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) will dispatch a mobile medical team to Chiang Rai, the northernmost province of Thailand, tomorrow to provide local people with medical services and humanitarian care. This will be the first visit to Thailand by an ICDF mobile medical team, the fund said in a statement. The team will be made up of 10 physicians specializing in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, dentistry, gynecology and obstetrics, as well as a pharmacist and medical care staff, the statement said. The team will provide medical care services and conduct joint projects with a local hospital.
■CRIME
Narcotics seized at Taoyuan
About 50kg of illegal drugs were seized over the past month at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, a spokesman for the Taoyuan Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The spokesman said Taoyuan prosecutors, airport police, customs and investigation agents confiscated almost 50kg of narcotics that smugglers were attempting to bring into Taiwan in the past month. One large haul of 28kg of an illegal substance was found hidden in a compressor motor, while other smugglers concealed hauls ranging from 2kg to 8kg inside monitors and face masks, the spokesman said. Many smugglers were local youth.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
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