CRIME
‘Coldplay’ suspect nabbed
A 21-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of selling fake tickets for Coldplay concerts in Kaohsiung on Saturday and Sunday, police said yesterday. The suspect surnamed Wei (魏) was caught after completing a deal with someone at the high-speed rail’s Zuoying Station on Sunday, and three fake tickets, a smartphone and NT$10,000 in cash were seized, the Zuoying Precinct said. The case came to light after a buyer reported being scammed online. He only realized his ticket for the Saturday show was not real after the QR code would not scan, police said. The fake tickets, which Wei sold for NT$4,000 to NT$5,000, had numerous typos and incorrect information on them, police said, adding there were likely other suspects involved.
TRAFFIC
New bridge lane to open
The three southbound lanes on the Zhongzheng Bridge (中正橋), which is still under construction, would open to motorists at noon on Saturday, the Taipei City Government said. The bridge has been under construction since May 2019 to replace an older structure. Only two lanes on the southbound side of the bridge are currently open, allowing traffic from Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正) to New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和). However, the northbound lanes would not open until early next year, the Taipei New Construction Office said. In the meantime, motorists traveling from New Taipei City to Taipei can still use the old bridge, which was built by the Japanese in 1937 and was once called Kawabata Bridge, the office said.
SOCIETY
Riskiest online stores listed
The Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday announced the “riskiest” marketplaces in the third quarter. The 7-Eleven online store placed first with 1,195 complaints, followed by Carousell with 720 complaints, Shopee with 550, Facebook Marketplace with 168 and the FamilyMart online store with 134. Scams targeting sellers on online marketplaces have been on the rise over the past few months, the bureau said, adding that fraudsters posing as buyers often contact the seller through Facebook Messenger or the platform’s chat function claiming to be unable to place an order, it said. They then send a phishing link or QR code impersonating customer service asking to “authenticate” their bank account by transferring money, it said. No marketplace staff would ask anyone to remit money as authentication, the bureau said, adding that people should never add suspicious Line accounts or click on suspicious links.
SOCIETY
Truck kills cyclist in Hualien
A 21-year-old unlicensed light truck driver early yesterday hit and killed a man on a bicycle after apparently falling asleep at the wheel on Provincial Highway No. 9 in Hualien’s Fuli Township (富里), local authorities said. The driver surnamed Ku (古) and a passenger surnamed Wang (王) had traveled to downtown Hualien in the early hours yesterday to make deliveries, Hualien police said. On the way back to Taitung, Ku fell asleep and the truck crossed the road divider and crashed into a storefront on the opposite side of the road, then hit a man on a bicycle and a traffic light, police said. Paramedics found the cyclist, a 51-year-old man surnamed Huang (黃), with serious head and limb injuries. He was pronounced dead at Yuli Tzu Chi Hospital at about 8am. Ku had scrapes on his arm, while Wang was unharmed. Ku passed a breath alcohol test, but did not have a driver’s license, police said.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
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