SOCIETY
Tuan Tuan had seizures
The male giant panda Tuan Tuan (團團) on Thursday received medication after suffering four seizures and was being given intensive medical care, the Taipei Zoo said yesterday. The first seizure occurred at 4:41pm and lasted about two minutes, and the three subsequent ones each lasted about 90 seconds, veterinarian Cheng Chiu-hung (鄭秋虹) said. The zoo could not determine whether the epileptic fits were triggered by a brain lesion that he was diagnosed with in September, or discomfort in his digestive tract, said Lai Yen-hsueh (賴燕雪), the zoo’s chief veterinarian. The panda was suffering from weakness in his hind limbs, a problem that the zoo hoped would be gradually alleviated with treatment, said Wang I-min (王怡敏), head of the zoo’s animals division.
CRIME
River deaths verdict out
A woman who organized an outing to the Hubaotan (虎豹潭) area in New Taipei City has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence, with five years probation, for the deaths of six members of the group in a flooded river last year. The Keelung District Court said in a statement on Thursday that the woman, surnamed Su (蘇), was found guilty of failing to give proper instructions and leading the 28 group members to safety when the Beishi River (北勢溪) flooded during heavy rains on Oct. 16 last year. Two adults and four children were swept away by the river surge and were later found dead by rescuers. Su admitted to negligence, the court said, adding that she had paid nearly NT$6 million (US$192,493) in compensation to the families of the deceased before the trial. The sentence can be appealed. The court statement said that some of the deceased family members had agreed to clemency for Su during the hearing.
CRIME
Eight charged over cannabis
Taoyuan prosecutors have indicted eight suspects following the seizure of a large stash of cannabis plants earlier this year. The 4,218 seized marijuana plants — believed to be the largest seizure in the nation’s history — alongside finished or semi-finished cannabis products, was estimated to have a market value of NT$1.26 billion, Longtan Precinct told a news conference. Police said they tracked down the prime suspect, identified as Wu (吳), and an accomplice, surnamed Ke (柯), and seized the marijuana plants on a nearly 3,000m2 farm near an army base in Longtan District (龍潭) on Sept. 20, a week after receiving a tip-off. Wu, a flower trader who had links to organized crime, had imported marijuana seeds and taught himself how to plant them, an initial police investigation found. Wu also allegedly hired six undocumented migrant workers from Indonesia to help him and Ke on the plantation. All eight were arrested during the raid in September.
CRIME
Eel smugglers arrested
Authorities at Kaohsiung International Airport on Wednesday seized more than 60,000 live young eels that two Taiwanese travelers were attempting to smuggle out of the country, police said yesterday. The 66,120 glass eels were in the luggage of the travelers, surnamed Yang (楊) and Hung (洪), who were booked on a flight to Hong Kong, the Kaohsiung precinct of the Aviation Police Bureau said in a press release. The ray-finned eels were packed in 12 sealed plastic bags that contained water, and there were about 2,755 eels in each bag, which were found by inspectors when suspicious images showed up on the luggage scanners, airport police said. The case has been handed over to the Fisheries’ Agency for further investigation, the bureau said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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