While authorities around the country heaved a sigh of relief after only a few Y2K glitches appeared, a different kind of problem surfaced down in Pintung County the day the new millennium began. A police officer attending a New Year's Day celebration Saturday at a Taiwan Sugar Company plant parked his patrol car, leaving the keys in the ignition. Not a smart thing to do.
An hour later, when the officer left the reception hall to return to his car ... it wasn't there!
What happened?
Turns out that a mentally-ill resident of the neighborhood decided to take the car for a joy ride, according to the Pintung police blotter.
Later in the day, the now-battered patrol car -- with two flat tires -- pulled into the parking lot of the Veteran's Hospital in Kaohsiung. A tall man brandishing a knife emerged from the car and rushed into the hospital. When police were called, they found the man sitting quietly on a seat in the emergency room, unharmed. He was then taken into custody without incident, police said.
Lunar holiday discounts
Because Taiwan's tourism industry was severely damaged by the 921 earthquake, hotel owners are trying to boost business during the Lunar New Year holidays. The quake greatly damaged several scenic spots in central Taiwan, sending the tourism industry in the area into a depression.
The Association of Tourism invited several hotel owners in major cities around the country to join a promotional program and offer discount coupons, so that people can tour the island a little cheaper. Thirty six hotels and several resorts nationwide have joined the program. Coupons issued by the association will be valid until the end of September.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)