CRIME
Lucifer Chu gets 14 months
The Taipei District Court yesterday sentenced media personality Lucifer Chu (朱學恒) to 14 months in prison for indecent assault of a city councilor. Chu was indicted in October last year after being accused of groping and forcibly kissing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chung Pei-chun (鍾沛君) twice at a Taipei restaurant on Aug. 6, 2022. In June last year, Chung went public with the allegations to be “a fighter rather than a victim.” At Chung’s request and with her attorney present, Chu signed a letter a few days later, apologizing to Chung and promising to stay away from her. However, the letter made no mention of the assault, Chung said. She subsequently filed a complaint against Chu, who she said had shown “no remorse for his behavior.” Chu yesterday expressed regret over the ruling. Saying he had not been given a fair trial to uncover the truth, Chu pledged to appeal as he proclaimed his innocence.
TRANSPORTATION
Danhai line plan revised
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications on Thursday approved a revised plan for the second phase of the light rail network in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), which is to be submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval, the New Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems said. Construction of the second phase of the Danhai light rail Blue Sea Line is set to be completed within five years of the Cabinet approving the project, the department said. The first phase of the Blue Sea light rail opened in November 2020, and the original plan for the second phase, which is to link Tamsui MRT station with Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭), initially included a section that ran through Tamsui Old Street, department head Lee Cheng-an (李政安) said. However, after taking into account the opinions of residents, the department modified the route and submitted the amended plan to the ministry on Oct. 30, 2020, Lee said, adding that the new plan includes changes to the light rail line to be built alongside the Tamsui River (淡水河). The line is to have six stations once it has been built and extend the operating route of the Danhai light rail to 6.6km, Lee said. It is also expected to link with the proposed Bali light rail line in future, he said.
CRIME
Quincy Davis gets jail time
The Taoyuan District Court on Thursday sentenced US-born Taiwanese basketball player Quincy Davis to 30 days in prison over an altercation with his ex-wife last year. The sentence, which can be commuted to a fine, was imposed because Davis repeatedly denied any wrongdoing during the trial, the court said. Disputes of any kind should be handled rationally, the court said in its ruling, adding that those involved should never resort to physical violence. Davis failed to exercise self-control or respect another person’s physical safety, the ruling said, which can still be appealed. Davis was arrested after an alleged fight with his ex-wife in front of Chingpu Police Station in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) in May last year. The arrest came after it was found that his ex-wife had previously obtained a restraining order against him. At the time, the police did not reveal the details of the altercation, but local media reports said the argument between the two had escalated into “pushing and shoving.” Davis was later released on bail of NT$100,000 after questioning, and was ordered to comply with the restraining order against him.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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