FISHERIES
New shrimp variants bred
The Fisheries Research Institute has succeeded in breeding two new color variants in captive harlequin shrimps, a species of saltwater crustacean found in coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Wild harlequin shrimps that live in waters in the east Pacific typically have deep pinkish-purple spots with yellow edges, while those that live in the Indian Ocean and the west Pacific tend to be more brownish with a blue edge. Through gene recombination and hybridization, shrimps in shades of indigo blue and cobalt blue have been bred, the institute said yesterday. The production value of ornamental shrimp in the nation exceeds NT$200 million (US$6.64 million) per year, it added.
DIPLOMACY
Fearful Taiwanese contacted
Taiwanese Fang Sheng-yi (方聖逸) on Thursday uploaded a video to YouTube asking for the government’s help and in which he said he is in a city in Mozambique in which militants have killed more than 100 people. The video was shared on Professional Technology Temple — the nation’s biggest online bulletin board system — by a user who claimed to be Fang’s friend. While Fang had not sought help from the nation’s embassy in Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had contacted the user who uploaded the video, spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said. The ministry talked with Fang by telephone yesterday morning and confirmed that he is safe at the moment, she said, adding that as Mozambique has imposed border controls and travel restrictions, the embassy would help him move to a safer place, before helping him return home when travel options are available.
CHARITY
Priest O’Connell dies at 84
Catholic Priest Brendan O’Connell, founder of the Bethlehem Foundation who devoted most of his life to charitable works in Taiwan, died in New York on Thursday aged 84. Bethlehem Foundation executive secretary Chen Cheng-lin (陳正霖) said that O’Connell had returned to the US due to health problems. He last visited Taiwan in 2018 to attend the opening of the foundation’s Infant Developmental Center Merciful Mother Kindergarten, though the foundation had regularly kept in touch with him, Chen said. O’Connell first traveled to Taiwan in 1963 when he began helping children with special needs in Miaoli County. He worked at several mental health rehabilitation centers and established the Bethlehem Foundation in 1996. O’Connell in 2017 received a national identification card from then-premier Lin Chuan (林全), becoming the first foreign national to obtain one without having to renounce his original citizenship following an amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法).
CRIME
Man charged for stabbing
A man surnamed Yu (于), 44, has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a man 18 times in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) last Saturday. The victim, a taxi driver surnamed Lin (林), 44, survived the attack, although he is still in a hospital intensive care unit. Police on Tuesday said that video footage from surveillance cameras showed Yu allegedly wielding a 30cm knife and stabbing Lin, who was passing by. Yu was quoted by police as saying that he saw Lin looking at him, and believed Lin had a grudge and was going to strike first, so he acted in self-defense. However, an investigation found that the two men did not know each other. Yu faces attempted manslaughter charges. A court rejected his request for bail.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
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