CRIME
Makiyo driver leaves hospital
Lin Yu-chun (林余駿), the taxi driver at the center of the Makiyo case, was discharged from hospital and is resting in a rented house nearby, Lin’s lawyer Chou Wu-jung (周武榮) said yesterday. Lin was allegedly beaten by Takateru Tomoyori, a Japanese friend of the local singer and actress, and Makiyo herself on Feb. 2. Both have been charged with causing severe bodily harm, and the court hearing is due to begin on Thursday.
CRIME
Girl killed after KTV fight
A teenage girl died after allegedly being hit by a car in front of a KTV parlor early yesterday morning, following a dispute between two groups of young people, Miaoli County police said. Police said the 17-year-old girl, surnamed Chuang (莊), was allegedly killed by a car driven by a 30-year-old man, Wang Yi-chieh (王義傑), who was drunk at the time. Wang has been charged with murder and the case was sent to prosecutors for further investigation, police added. Police said that late on Saturday night, Chuang and her boyfriend, surnamed Wu (吳), attended a party at a KTV. Wang was drinking with his friends in another booth and he telephoned a female friend, surnamed Hsia (夏), who was in another booth with Chuang, and asked them both to come to his booth. After the two girls had been in Wang’s booth for some time, Wu came to ask the two girls to return. A fight ensued. When both parties left the KTV, they began arguing again, at which point the drunken Wang drove his car into the rival group, police said. Chuang was knocked down by the car and Wang then allegedly reversed his car over her and killed her. Police said Wang was pulled from the car by Chuang’s friends and beaten up before officers arrived and arrested him.
BUSINESS
Orchid fair gears up
Orchid growers are gearing up ahead of an annual trade fair held in Tainan that opens later this week, which has become an event foreign buyers do not want to miss, said Lee Tsang-yu (李蒼裕), an advisor to the Taiwan Orchid Growers Association. The Taiwan International Orchid Show has established itself as a key industry event, as important as the Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival and the World Orchid Conference, Lee said. More than 3,000 foreign visitors and buyers took part in the fair last year, which reported orders worth NT$7 billion (US$236.89 million) during the event, the association said. This year’s show will be held from Friday to March 12.
EDUCATION
HK school fair wraps up
A two-day higher education fair concluded in Taipei and Kaohsiung yesterday with top-ranked universities from Hong Kong offering handsome scholarship packages to attract Taiwanese students. The University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong were among about 37 universities and colleges from home and abroad that took part in the event, ahead of the university admission process that begins in March. The University of Hong Kong, ranked 22nd in the world and top in both Hong Kong and Asia in the QS World University Rankings last year, said it hoped to recruit 60 Taiwanese students this year, adding that students with a scholastic aptitude score of between 65 and 75 are eligible to apply for a partial or a full scholarship worth up to NT$2.4 million (US$81,000) over four years. Meanwhile, City University of Hong Kong, which ranks 110th in the world in QS World University Rankings last year, said it was offering students full scholarships worth NT$2.2 million.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
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