CRIME
Man charged in friend’s death
A man has been arrested on suspicion of burning a friend to death to assume his identity in a bid to avoid jail time, police said yesterday. Sun Kuo-huang (孫國晃), 33, was arrested on Wednesday in Pingtung County for allegedly killing his friend, a doctoral student, while leaving a suicide note with his signature to fake his death last week, police said. Sun apparently first attempted to choke his 29-year-old friend to death, but evidence suggests the victim was still alive when Sun placed him on the backseat of a car and set it ablaze, police said. “He tried to deceive the police with the student’s ID card, but our officers caught him,” a Pingtung police spokesman said. Sun allegedly applied for a new driver’s license and other identification documents using the victim’s ID card in a scam that local media compared to the 1999 Hollywood thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley.
CRIME
Former official sentenced
A former official in the Presidential Office was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for leaking state secrets to China. Wang Ren-bing (王仁炳) was convicted by the Taipei District Court of passing confidential information about the May 2008 inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to Chinese intelligence. It was unclear exactly what information about Ma’s inauguration he passed on and how it could have been beneficial to China. Wang reportedly joined the Presidential Office staff in 2001 under Ma’s predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). A court spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
TRADE
Gas companies fined for fraud
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday issued NT$600,000 in fines to four companies that made illegal efforts to sell household gas valves under the guise of conducting safety inspections. A recent investigation by the FTC showed that four companies that sell safety switches for gas valves — Shin Chung Natural Gas Co (欣中天然瓦斯), The Great Taipei Gas Corp, Hsin Lin Natural Gas Co and Hsin Chung Pipeline — solicited households by posting notices about safety inspections. However, the real purpose of the visits was to sell safety switches by telling householders that their gas valves were unsafe, a practice that constitutes fraud, the FTC said. The commission therefore issued fines of between NT$100,000 to NT$200,000 to each of the companies for violation of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法). The FTC also advised consumers to be wary of such solicitors from unknown companies.
EDUCATION
Japan studies center opened
A center for Japan studies was established at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) yesterday in response to a call for deeper academic exchanges between Taiwan and Japan. It is the fourth of its kind in Taiwan, the other centers being at National Chengchi University, National Chung Hsing University and National Sun Yat-sen University. Since last year, the Interchange Association of Japan has been working to set up such centers in local universities as part of its efforts to boost mutual understanding through academic exchange. NTNU President Chang Kuo-en (張國恩) said that unlike the other three centers which place more emphasis on history, literature and language studies, the NTNU center will focus on the politics, economics and society. The center will invite professors in different disciplines to share their insights on modern Japan, he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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