The Tainan District Court yesterday sentenced a Chinese boat captain surnamed Wang (王) to three years in prison for severing an undersea cable to Penghu County in February.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) on Feb. 25 received a report from Chunghwa Telecom Co that said that Hong Tai 58 (宏泰) had severed its No. 3 cable.
Following the incident, Wang was held incommunicado and later indicted by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The case was transferred to the Tainan District Court, which approved his continued detention.
Seven of the ship’s Chinese crew were also detained in February, but were deported and not indicted due to a lack of evidence.
Wang admitted to ordering the crew to drop anchor in a lapse of professional judgement, but denied any criminal wrongdoing.
The area has many signs indicating that it was a no-anchor zone and the cable’s position was marked on electronic charts used on the ship, the court said.
The anchor was not properly secured to the seabed, allowing the ship to drift in a zigzag pattern, completely severing the cable and cutting off communications, it said, adding that it cost Chunghwa Telecom NT$17 million (US$573,163) in repairs and NT$1.8 million in shipping agency fees.
The court said it found Wang’s actions intentional and that he had contravened Article 72 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法).
The ruling can still be appealed.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS