VIEW THIS PAGE English-speaking drivers to hit Taipei County’s streets
Taxis with English-speaking drivers are expected to hit the streets of Taipei County soon as part of the county government’s efforts to build a more foreigner-friendly environment in the local transportation network, a county official said last week. The exact date would be announced later, the official said. Under the program, the Taipei County Government will offer free English conversation courses to taxi drivers through virtual reality learning and those who qualify will be certified and recruited into the English-speaking service network. In the future, foreigners will be able to call an English-language taxi service through the county government’s certification system, the official said.
Indonesian facing trial for alleged poisoning
The Taipei Prosecutors Office indicted an Indonesian domestic worker on Wednesday on charges of causing injury, after she allegedly poisoned the family of her employer with mercury. Prosecutors said the worker, known by the name Sukini, is being held at a detention center in Hsinchu pending trial. The alleged victims — a man surnamed Chang, his wife and their two children — are recovering after being treated in hospital and having heavy metal residues removed from their bodies, prosecutors said. The prosecutors said Sukini allegedly broke several thermometers and put the mercury into the family’s food. Chang and his wife later developed symptoms that included hair loss, mouth ulcers and impairment of vision, all indicative of mercury poisoning. The two children in the family, aged three and five, were constantly falling because they lacked physical coordination, the prosecutors said. It was found that the mercury concentration in their bodies was 10.42 times the normal level in the adults and 23.33 times the normal level in the children. After Sukini ran away, Chang’s wife found several broken thermometers in the house, which led her to suspect that the family had been poisoned, prosecutors said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique