CRIME
Taiwanese returned: CIB
Three Taiwanese in Georgia, who were forced into a telecom fraud operation, were returned to Taiwan safely months ago, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said yesterday in response to media reports that a Taiwanese gang was allegedly operating a fraud ring in the European nation. The bureau said that in May it had received reports of three Taiwanese being held captive in Georgia and forced to engage in telecom fraud. Some of the 400 Taiwanese and Chinese in the hotel utilized by the ring were tricked into entering the country, while others went voluntarily, although they expected to be compensated, the bureau said. It liaised with its office in the Netherlands and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to extract the three in June and July, and has opened an investigation into the case, the bureau said. It also said that there appears to have been Taiwanese operating a criminal enterprise in Georgia, with its members entering the country on a third passport, although they reportedly moved to Southeast Asia last month after attracting attention from local law enforcement.
DIPLOMACY
German agreement inked
Taiwan and Germany yesterday signed an agreement to establish a commission to promote and facilitate exchanges at the civil society level, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The agreement was signed remotely by Representative to Germany Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), who is based in Berlin, and German Deputy Representative to Taiwan Andreas Hofem in Taipei, the ministry said in a news release. Initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, the agreement is aimed at establishing a platform for enhanced bilateral dialogue at the level of civil society, the ministry said. The German office said in a news release that the commission would comprise 24 members — 12 from each side — and be headed by two chairs. German lawmaker Reinhard Butikofer has been named as one cochair and former National Chengchi University professor Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華) has been named as the other, releases by the two sides said. The commission is to be launched next year and is to meet once a year, alternating between Germany and Taiwan, the German office said. The agreement is the third to be signed by the two sides this year, the other two being pacts on technology collaboration and judicial cooperation on criminal matters, the ministry said.
HEALTH
CDC nears vaccine goal
More than 6 million doses of publicly funded influenza vaccines have been administered this year, including to nearly half of people aged 65 or above, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Since its rollout on Oct. 2, 6.018 million doses of the flu vaccine had been administered, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) told reporters. In terms of age, 2.08 million people aged 65 or above, or 49.8 percent of that age group, have received a shot, just shy of the government’s goal of 55 percent, Lo said. In the 50-to-64 age group, 15.4 percent, or 813,000 people, have been vaccinated, as have 70,000 people aged 19 to 49 with chronic illnesses or other factors that put them at risk of severe complications from infection, he said. As of yesterday, 561,000 doses remained unadministered, he said, adding that the CDC would consider purchasing additional doses based on demand. The flu season typically begins in November and winds down in March.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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