Two Taiwanese military academy students in Honduras who were shot during a robbery earlier this month are recovering well, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
“Taiwanese Ambassador to Honduras Lai Chien-chung (賴建中) said he expressed grave concerns to the Honduran government over the matter immediately after the incident and that police had arrested the suspects soon after an order by Honduran President Porfirio Lobo,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyn-shun (沈呂巡) said.
The two cadets and another Taiwanese student, who are taking part in a military exchange program in Honduras, encountered robbers on the evening of May 10 on their way to school to attend Spanish classes, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday.
The robbers opened fire on the students after stealing US$5. A student surnamed Lai (賴) was shot in the right side of his waist, while a student surnamed Chin (金) was shot in the elbow, the paper said.
Lin Cheng-hui (林正惠), deputy director-general of the ministry’s Department of Central and South American Affairs, said the incident was a random attack rather than one specifically targeting Taiwanese.
“One student has been -transferred from the intensive care unit and can walk around, though the bullet remains in his body,” Lin said.
The third student, surnamed Yeh (葉), was unharmed in the assault, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Lo Shao-ho (羅紹和) said.
The three cadets are expected to continue their studies in Honduras.
The Honduran chief of general staff has gone to the hospital to see the cadets and the Honduran health minister has expressed concerns to Lai on behalf of the Honduran president, Lin said.
Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) has directed officials to update the cadets’ families on their medical condition and to evaluate the best possible follow-up medical care for the injured students, Lo said.
As the US and Mexico are stepping up a crackdown on drug trafficking, several cartels have moved operations from Mexico to other parts of Latin America, leading to a deterioration of public order in some Central and South American states, Lin said.
“Our embassies and representative offices in Latin America have urged our expatriates there to heighten vigilance of their own safety,” Lin said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS