Staff writer, with CNATwo Taiwanese wanted for their suspected involvement in cross-border telecom fraud were on Friday repatriated to Taiwan from the Philippines and Vietnam. In 2017, Huang, 34, allegedly led a 110-member fraud ring running a telecom scam in Latvia, where they were arrested and deported back to Taiwan that same year, the CIB said. Huang, who was sent to the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation, allegedly obtained about NT$150 million (US$4.97 million) in illegal profits through the telecom fraud operation, the CIB said. So far this year, 36 Taiwanese suspects have been deported back to Taiwan through cross-border cooperation that ended their fraudulent overseas activities, it said. Last month, 29 Taiwanese suspects involved in cross-border telecom fraud in Japan were repatriated to Taiwan pending an investigation after Japanese authorities in March tracked the suspects to a site in Yamanashi Prefecture’s Kofu City.

Investigators from the agency and the US National Transportation Safety Board were investigating, according to Molinaro and a board statement on Twitter. Six people were on board the plane, five of whom were killed, he said. A person who was either in or near a car on the ground was also “impacted” by the crash and was being treated for injuries, Benoit said. He said the airplane was en route to the Peach Bowl playoff game in Atlanta, Georgia, between LSU and Oklahoma. He said he was unable to go to the game and was at work when the crash happened.

Some observers predict North Korea might use the conference to announce that it plans to abandon faltering diplomacy with the US and lift its moratorium on major weapons tests. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea convened in Pyongyang on Saturday. North Korea has warned that its resumption of tests of long-range missiles and nuclear devices depends on US action. However, that would also likely completely derail diplomacy with the US and further dim the prospect that North Korea would get badly needed sanctions relief to rebuild its troubled economy, some experts said. North Korea is pushing for major sanctions relief in return for limited denuclearization steps, but the US maintains that sanctions must stay in place until North Korea takes significant steps toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and technology.

By Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporterEnvironmental groups joined forces and braved the rain in Taipei yesterday to march against air pollution and call for measures against it. Several political parties were also represented at the march, including the New Power Party, the New Party and the Taiwan People’s Party. They shouted slogans such as “The greater south wants health, “Breathing needs equal rights,” and “Coal-free Taiwan, sustainable health” as they marched. They also held signs that read, “Nuclear-free, coal-free homeland,” and “Legalized harm, state violence,” among other messages. For the march, ACT listed four major demands, including the hosting of a “climate conference” and the abolition of the “centralization of energy.”

By Wang Ting-chuan, Lin Ching-chuan and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writerA brand of aromatic water that was a staple of Taiwan’s older generation as a perfume and topical application is to make a comeback as early as Sunday after its manufacturer suspended production last year. Ethanol Group general manager Guo Chao (郭超) on Tuesday said that it would renew the Taiwanese facilities and devote resources to the management and advertising of the product to create brand loyalty among young people. Ming Sing came to Taiwan in 1949 with Chou’s daughter Chou Wen-chi (周文璣), who founded Ming Sing Chemical two years later to make the aromatic water and talc powder. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, Ming Sing once again became popular, as it was 73 percent alcohol, which is high enough to be used as a disinfectant. To combat counterfeit Ming Sing on the market, the company would not rule out legal actions to protect the authentic product, Gou said.

AP, MONSEY, New YorkA man late on Saturday attacked a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home north of New York City, stabbing and wounding five people before fleeing in a vehicle, police said. Top state officials, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Attorney General Letitia James, released statements condemning the attack. The Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey was at the scene in Monsey, about an hour north of New York City. The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council for the Hudson Valley region tweeted reports that the stabbings took place at the house of a Hasidic rabbi while they were celebrating Hanukkah. Cuomo, who called the stabbings a “cowardly act” has directed the state police hate crimes task force to investigate the attacks.

BloombergTens of thousands of holidaymakers and residents were yesterday urged to evacuate a popular tourist spot in southeast Australia as a heatwave sweeping through the region threatened to escalate bushfires. In a televised appeal, Victoria Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp called on about 30,000 people vacationing around Lakes Entrance in the East Gippsland region to leave immediately. The fires, which are affecting several states, have triggered an emotive debate about the effects of global warming in the world’s driest inhabited continent. Parts of western Sydney are expected to reach 44°C by tomorrow, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said. Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations, which draw tens of thousands of tourists to the city for the harborside spectacle, are to go ahead regardless.

As of Friday, the 14th day of the 5G auction, bids totaled NT$74.642 billion, the National Communications Commission said in a statement on its Web site. Bidding would exceed market expectations, as there is limited space in the most coveted 3.5GHz bandwidth, Yuanta said. Other bandwidths are likely to be harder to commercialize due to equipment unavailability, which should intensify bidding in the prime bandwidths, Yuanta said. “As such, we expect even more brutal competition when the auction enters the next stage, when operators will be bidding for shares of the 3.5GHz bandwidth,” Lee said. With competition among telecoms expected to intensify as they seek a leading position in the 5G era, while given the limited availability of models to monetize 5G, investors might have a poor appetite for telecom stocks after the auction, Yuanta said.

By Ernie Ko 葛傳宇President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) recently promoted 20 senior military officers. This is a sign of Tsai’s increasing confidence in dealing with the military and improved skills at recognizing talent. As time has passed, the necessity to study military training in Europe, Japan and South Korea has been neglected. By contrast, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) frequently participates in peacekeeping missions, and it is currently rapidly accumulating capacity and experience in international military actions. Taiwanese officers do not lack innovation, what they lack is instruction and encouragement from top leadership.

By Wu Po-hsuan / Staff reporterNational Taiwan University (NTU) plans to divest NT$432 million (US$14.3 million) from six “high pollution” and “high carbon emission” companies by the end of next year, the university’s Student Association said. NTU’s chief financial officer (CFO) told the student group that the school has targeted six companies, accounting for 22 percent of the university’s investments, and has already divested from four of them, NTU Student Association head of sustainability Huang Yu-ting (黃毓庭) said. International groups that track divestments would base their observations on public and official commitments made by the university, she said, urging NTU to make a public announcement. She said that NTU should set guidelines for future investments and that it consider not just profit, but also environmental risks. In the past, the university has invested in companies with the top 12 highest levels of greenhouse gas emissions in Taiwan, Huang said.

The commission attributed the increased losses to fluctuations in exchange rates and high hedging costs. Life insurers’ cumulative hedging losses advanced from NT$110 billion for the year to Oct. 31 to NT$148.2 billion as of Nov. 30, as many had to hedge their US dollar-denominated assets amid fluctuation in foreign exchange rates, the commission said. In the first 11 months, life insurers paid about NT$183.8 billion into hedging programs such as currency swap or non-delivery forwards, a two-party currency derivatives contract, the commission said. For the whole of this year, net foreign exchange losses are likely to be higher than last year’s losses of NT$232.3 billion, it said. Insurers’ combined net value surged 71 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of NT$1.91 trillion in the 11-month period on the back of the rising value of their local and foreign equity holdings, it said.

China came in second, with Taiwanese banks’ outstanding international claims totaling US$43.84 billion, down from US$45.20 billion a quarter earlier, the bank’s data showed. The non-bank private sector worldwide held 62.40 percent of Taiwan’s total international claims as of Sept. 30, with the banking industry holding 29.79 percent and the public sector securing 7.8 percent, the data showed. Developed countries were Taiwan’s main debtors, accounting for 52.50 percent of the nation’s total international claims, the data indicated. In terms of regions, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 47.50 percent of Taiwan’s total international claims, followed by the Americas and the Caribbean (28.86 percent) and Europe (20.42 percent), the central bank said. After the US and China, Luxembourg was Taiwan’s third-largest debtor, with Taiwanese banks’ exposure standing at US$39.43 billion, followed by Hong Kong with US$36.88 billion and Japan with US$32.76 billion in exposure, the central bank’s figures showed.

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter, in Taitung CountyPassengers traveling on the South Link Line (南迴鐵路) can look forward to uninterrupted mobile phone service while passing through some of its tunnels after two base stations along the route are activated today, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday. Two signal stations at Puan (菩安) and Gujhuang (古莊), about 8km apart, would serve about 550,000 passengers on the railway line annually, the commission said, adding that travelers could experience preliminary results of improved mobile phone reception along the South Link. About 40km of the South Link Line is inside 35 tunnels along the 98.2km route, and prior to the activation of the base stations, mobile service was unavailable for about one-and-a-half hours of the travel time, it said. The NCC started coordinating with the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), telecoms and other agencies to improve reception and expand coverage along the line, it said. “We recognize the efforts made by telecoms and government agencies to jointly improve the mobile phone signal receptions along the South Link Line and thank all the unsung heroes at the front line for their hard work,” the commission said.

By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterVanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) on Thursday said it expects sales this quarter to meet the middle to high end of its guidance amid tight 8-inch production capacity. The Hsinchu-based company in October forecast that revenue this quarter would be between NT$6.8 billion and NT$7.2 billion (US$225.14 million and US$238.39 million). “With the rise in 5G demand, the market is recovering faster than expected and tight 8-inch wafer capacity situations have already occurred,” Fang said. Vanguard is to complete its acquisition of the 8-inch fab in Singapore from GlobalFoundries Inc on Tuesday, he said. Vanguard specializes in LCD driver ICs and logic ICs, as well as power management ICs and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor image sensors.

Without doubt, truthiness has had a great run this year — from US President Donald Trump’s Washington, to the Brexit campaign in the UK, to events in Asia. The winner was Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate change campaigner. With forest fires now ringing Sydney, it is surprising that the government still seems so complacent about climate change. Rounding out Time’s shortlist were Hong Kong’s pro-democracy campaigners, who were saluted for protests that have been ongoing for more than six months. Second, in addition to other complaints, the demonstrators have been incensed by the growing incidence of police brutality during the protests.