CRIME
Taichung stabber sentenced
A 20-year-old man surnamed Hung (洪) was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for attempted murder and endangering public safety, after he went on a rampage on a Taichung Metro train in May, stabbing two passengers. Hung did not appear at the hearing when the verdict was handed down by the Taichung District Court in the first trial of the case. The incident occurred on May 21, when Hung used three knives to randomly attack passengers on a Taichung MRT train, injuring two people, before he was subdued by other passengers, prosecutors said. He chose to carry out the assault on the 10th anniversary of the Taipei Metro attack, during which a passenger named Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) killed four people and injured 22 in a stabbing frenzy on a Taipei MRT train in 2014. The guilty verdict and 10-year prison sentence can be appealed.
CRIME
Burglary suspect questioned
A Vietnamese woman was placed under investigation by prosecutors on Wednesday after being questioned by police in relation to a recent burglary in which valuables and coins worth hundreds of thousands of New Taiwan dollars were stolen from a friend’s warehouse. According to the Tainan Police Department’s Sinhua Precinct, the 44-year-old woman is believed to have stolen goods and money totaling NT$460,000. Among the stolen items were about 2,200 NT$50 coins, 400 NT$5 coins, 1,600 NT$10 coins, 100 NT$1,000 bills and a gold necklace. Police said it took a week to solve the case after the victim reported it. The case has been transferred to prosecutors for further investigation, with the stolen goods recovered from the woman’s residence and returned to the victim, authorities said.
TRANSPORTATION
Airport bus stop to move
The 1819 bus to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to depart from Taipei Bus Station instead of outside Taipei Main Station from 3am on Wednesday next week, Kuo-Kuang Motor Transport said. The 1819, which runs 24/7, is to depart from Taipei Bus Station in Q Square Mall, a few hundred meters from the current stop next to East Gate 3 at Taipei Main Station, the company said. It added that the 1813, 1813D and 1815 routes connecting Taipei with Keelung and Jinshan would be relocated to the Taipei bus stop currently designated for drop-offs near Taipei Main Station. The Kuo-Kuang terminal is to be demolished, and a new footbridge across Civic Boulevard is to be constructed, a Taipei City Government proposal showed.
DRUGS
Five indicted for marijuana
Five Thai nationals were indicted by the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office for attempting to smuggle 20.28kg of marijuana into Taiwan in breach of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. Police officers and customs officials at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport found marijuana in checked luggage belonging to four different Thai passengers arriving on different flights on Oct. 6 at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, said Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division. In addition to the four suspects, a fifth man who is believed to have been monitoring the transport of the marijuana, was arrested on Oct. 7 at the airport shortly before boarding a flight out of the country, Chang said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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