■ WEATHER
Nation gets first snowfall
PHOTO: CENTRAL WEATHER BUREAU
Visitors to Yushan (玉山) yesterday afternoon had a half-hour glimpse of the nation's first snowfall this winter. The Central Weather Bureau said the snowfall began at about 2:05pm and ended at 2:35pm. The depth of snow was less than 1cm. The temperature yesterday morning hit minus 3oC. At 3:30pm, however, the temperature rose slightly to minus 1oC. The bureau said the snowfall was brought by the accumulation of humidity and the arrival of a cold front. It said the weather would become drier once the frontal system had left Taiwan, with lower chances of snow.
■ CRIME
Smuggled cigarettes seized
Kaohsiung Port police seized more than 500 cases of smuggled foreign cigarettes, including some rare brands, aboard a local fishing boat at Kaohsiung Port on Sunday, police said yesterday. Police detained the ship captain and four crew members for questioning after discovering that the fishing gear on the boat had not been used during their 20-day fishing journey, police said. The captain, surnamed Tsai (蔡), claimed that all the fish caught over the past 20 days had been sold before they returned home. However, he could not say who the fish had been sold to or where the cigarettes had come from, police said, adding that they were still investigating.
■ CRIME
High Court rejects appeal
The Taiwan High Court yesterday rejected a request by Taipei prosecutors that a former agent of the Investigation Bureau arrested last Tuesday for allegedly sending threatening mail to the first family and a number of legislators and government officials be detained. The Taipei District Court on Friday rejected the request against Yang Ching-hai (楊清海) and released him on NT$100,000 bail. Taipei prosecutors immediately appealed the case, but the high court yesterday turned down the appeal. Yang was arrested last Tuesday at his residence in Taipei County, where police also found two pistols and 45 bullets. Police said Yang had sent a postcard threatening to sexually assault President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) daughter and to kidnap his grandsons.
■ EDUCATION
Fu Jen receives big donation
The Department of Chemistry at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei County received a donation of US$1.5 million from alumni earlier this month, the biggest donation ever made by alumni to any privately run university in Taiwan. Hsu Wen-hsien (許文賢), director of the university's Department of Chemistry, expressed his appreciation to the donors -- several Fu Jen alumni who preferred to remain anonymous -- and said the donation would be used to finance a foundation for the development of the department. Hsu said the interest from the donation would be used toward scholarships and to meet the costs of improving the department's teaching materials and research facilities. He said that his department has already received US$300,000 of the donation, which will be paid over five years.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods