Beijing – Kenyan police will deport 45 Taiwanese to mainland China where they face investigation for fraud, Chinese state media said on Wednesday after Taipei blasted Beijing for “abducting” its citizens.

Taipei said this week that Beijing had “illegally” pressured authorities in Nairobi to deport eight of its citizens to the mainland after they had been cleared of fraud charges in Kenya, in a case which has inflamed passions in Taiwan.

A total of 67 people from Taiwan and mainland China will be deported from Kenya on Wednesday after 10 were sent back at the weekend, the official Xinhua news agency cited police as saying. Altogether, 45 are Taiwanese.

“Mainland police will investigate the Taiwanese suspects in strict accordance with the law and keep Taiwanese authorities informed,” Xinhua cited China’s public security ministry as saying.

Related: Taiwanese suspected of fraud in China

China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though the island has ruled itself since 1949 following a civil war split.

Relations have often been tense, and the landslide election victory of independence-leaning Tsai Ing-wen in January’s presidential poll raised fears that Beijing will take a more assertive stance.

Political and trade ties between Taipei and Beijing grew in the last decade under the leadership of the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT).

China’s President Xi Jinping met with Tsai’s KMT predecessor Ma Ying-jeou last year for the first summit between the two sides since their 1949 split.

But the meeting produced little of substance beyond the announcement of a telephone hotline between Beijing and Taipei. Xinhua said the hotline had been used to discuss the detainees.

“Judicial organs on the Chinese mainland have legal rights of jurisdiction over the repatriated suspects,” Xinhua cited the public security ministry as saying.

Taiwan said Wednesday that it had filed suit against several top officials in Kenya for ignoring the court decision which cleared some of the suspects in the cyber scam case.

The officials “allowed Kenyan police to disrespect a court ruling, forcefully detaining our citizens for over 24 hours and illegally cooperating with mainland personnel to deport them to China”, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a written report to parliament.

Taiwanese authorities hoped to send a delegation of senior officials to China within two or three days to discuss the matter, said Andrew Hsia, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council.

China’s nationalist Global Times tabloid defended the deportations in an editorial on Wednesday, while acknowledging they had met with “strong protests and criticism” in Taiwan.

“Taiwan is making a fuss about the mainland extraditing Taiwan suspects from abroad. Don’t expect the mainland to yield to these disgraceful acts,” said the paper, which has close ties to the ruling Communist party.

It added: “The mainland’s handling of the case is supported by international laws… It is important that the Taiwan side does not politicise the matter.”

Xinhua reported that the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Zhang Zhijun had informed Taipei about “a group of Taiwanese residents who are criminal suspects thought to have carried out electronic fraud and who have been detained by our public security agency”.

“Taiwanese suspected fraudsters are thought to have created a base overseas to defraud mainland people with increasing frequency… these criminals must be brought to justice,” Xinhua cited Zhang as saying, in a report which the office posted on its own website.

China resumed ties with Taiwan’s former ally Gambia last month, ending an unofficial diplomatic truce between the two sides. The African nation previously had relations with Taiwan.

Don’t get time for beauty treatment due to busy schedule? Well, here’s a female who has found an ingenious way to squeeze time.

A woman was spotted riding the subway wearing a black facial mask in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, reported news.china.com on April 9.

The photos of her appearing on subway and bus stations with the mask on her face taken by passersby have gone viral on social media.

In a short video clip posted online, a middle-aged woman is heard saying that the woman gave her a shock when she saw her in black mask on subway.

Explaining why she was wearing the mask, the female, who works for a foreign trading company, said in an interview that was staying up until late night to finish her work and that was making her look awful.

But the main reason was that her wedding was coming up and she wanted to look her best before the big day.

Since she didn’t have time to take care of herself at night, she came up with the idea of using the facial mask on her way to work.

She said she never thought her decision will grab so much attention.

She added that looking good was more important than worrying about people’s reaction.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia (AFP) – An elderly Christian woman has been caned in a conservative Indonesian province for selling alcohol, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith has been punished there under strict religious laws.

The 60-year was whipped nearly 30 times with a rattan cane before a crowd of hundreds in Aceh province Tuesday, an official said, along with a couple who were subjected to 100 lashes for committing adultery.

Aceh is the only province in the predominantly Muslim country that applies sharia law, and public canings for breaches of Islamic code happen on a regular basis and often attract huge crowds.

Those caught engaging in adultery, same-sex relationships, drinking and even associating with unmarried members of the opposite sex can end up facing the cane.

Though the law once only applied to Muslims, a bylaw that took effect late last year allowed sharia regulations to be applied to non-Muslims in certain situations, Lili Suparli, a senior official at the Central Aceh prosecutor’s office told AFP.

“This is the first case of a non-Muslim being punished under Islamic criminal bylaw,” he said, referring to the punishment of the Christian woman.

Aceh began implementing sharia law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, an effort by the central government in Jakarta to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

Islamic laws have been strengthened since the province struck a peace deal with the central government in 2005.

More than 90 per cent of Indonesians describe themselves as Muslim, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of the faith.

Hong Kong – A British lecturer who taught in Hong Kong has been found dead in mainland China and was “possibly” murdered, police said, with fears his disappearance three weeks ago was linked to a million-dollar property deal.

Local media reported Hilary Bower, 60, had been murdered, but Hong Kong police would confirm only that he had been killed.

Bower worked at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and lived across the border in the southern mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, commuting between the two places.

He lived with his girlfriend and six-year-old son, according to reports.

Hong Kong police said Wednesday they had received notification from mainland authorities that Bower had been killed in China.

There were no further details given about where he was found or how he died.

“Police have received notification from mainland relevant authorities that he was killed on the night of March 22,” a Hong Kong police statement said.

A police source told AFP it was “possibly a murder” but there had been no confirmation from mainland counterparts.

Bower was last seen on March 21, Hong Kong police said, adding that he had crossed from Hong Kong into the mainland.

Local reports said Bower was last spotted at a land border checkpoint.

His girlfriend reported him missing at a police station in Hong Kong on March 30, the police statement said.

A UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said: “We are providing assistance to the family of a British national reported missing in southern China and are urgently seeking further information from local authorities.” A friend of Bower criticised police on both sides of the border for their handling of the case.

Richard Charles described them as “shoddy and shambolic”, the South China Morning Post reported.

“I find it unbelievable that Hilary’s friends and colleagues have had to find out from the media about this. We are in shock and are extremely upset,” said Charles.

Charles also said he believed there may be a link between Bower’s disappearance and a recent property sale for which Bower was due to receive HK$9 million ($1.2 million), the SCMP reported.

Bower was an English language instructor at the university and had also taught in China, South Korea, Thailand, Spain and Kuwait, according to his personal homepage on the university website.