■ TRANSPORTATION
Freeway closing for drill
The Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5) linking Taipei with Ilan will be closed for five hours tomorrow starting at 9pm between Taipei County’s Shihding Township (石碇) and Ilan County’s Toucheng Township (頭城) for an emergency rescue drill, the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau said yesterday. The section of the freeway to be closed for the firefighting and emergency rescue drills will include the full length of the 12.9km Hsuehshan Tunnel. Officials said the drill was a regular exercise to train response units in case of an emergency in the tunnel. They said the exercise would simulate an operation involving fire brigades and ambulance workers from Taipei and Ilan counties responding to a fire in the tunnel caused by a bus rear-ending another bus. Motorists traveling in either direction between Taipei and Ilan are advised to use other roads during the drill, the officials said.
■CRIME
Monk sentenced to jail
A Buddhist monk has been sentenced to 80 days in jail for repeated indecent exposure, a newspaper reported yesterday. Chen Poh-ming (陳博銘), 42, lifted his yellow monk’s robe and masturbated in front of a female tour guide on Feb. 16 while visiting the Paper Museum in Puli (埔里), Nantou County, the United Daily News reported. The shocked guide alerted police, who arrested him. Chen was released on bail the same day, but as he was riding a bus home, he masturbated in front of a woman passenger. The driver drove the bus directly to a police station, where Chen was arrested again. On Monday, the Nantou County District Court sentenced Chen to 80 days in jail.
■CRIME
Pirated goods seized
The National Police Agency has seized goods with a combined market value of NT$704 million (US$23.1 million) in 547 cases of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement and arrested 635 suspects in its second crackdown this year, an agency official said yesterday. Police scoured marketplaces, shopping malls, night markets, factories, warehouses and containers and searched the Internet in a crackdown on the manufacturing, sale and smuggling of counterfeit and pirated goods between Monday and Thursday last week, the official said. He urged the public to support the agency’s efforts by rejecting counterfeit goods to protect the rights of copyright and trademark owners. He also encouraged the public to report crimes related to counterfeiting and piracy.
■CULTURE
Chiayi to host fireworks
The central government’s fireworks display in celebration of Double Ten National Day will take place in Chiayi City this year, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday. Siew, a native of Chiayi, made the announcement while attending a ceremony held by the Chiayi City Government to mark the 26th anniversary of the city’s status upgrade. Speaking as a guest of Chiayi Mayor Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠), Siew described the Oct. 10 fireworks show as “a major international event” that will introduce Chiayi to the world by attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors, including tens of thousands of tourists from China and other countries to watch the festivities. It will be the first National Day fireworks show to be staged in Chiayi, Huang said, inviting the public to share in the celebrations.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
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