■WEATHER
Meranti warning lifted
The Central Weather Bureau yesterday lifted its warnings for Tropical Storm Meranti as the storm headed toward China, but the bureau cautioned residents in central and southern Taiwan to be on alert for possible heavy rain. Residents in mountainous and low-lying areas in central and southern areas should be on alert for sudden showers, landslides and flooding, the bureau said. Taitung County, which was lashed by Meranti on Thursday, was sunny yesterday morning. Road traffic had resumed and most of the approximately 100 Aborigine residents in the county who had been evacuated had returned home.
■CRIME
Police buy thief a bike
Police who arrested a man for stealing a bicycle discovered he was so poor that they decided to have a whip round to buy him a bike. The man, surnamed Huang (黃), stole the bicycle from a high school near his home in Chiayi City to save his daughter from her daily 5km walk to the nearest bus stop to get to her vocational school, local media reported on Thursday. Huang had told his daughter he bought the bicycle second-hand, but after it was recognized by its former owner, both father and daughter were detained by the police. Once police officers heard about the difficult conditions that the Huang family lived in — with no access to running water or electricity — they organized a collection that was used to buy the girl a new bike.
■AVIATION
CAL encounters second hoax
China Airlines (CAL) says a male passenger was denied boarding after he told luggage inspectors at Sydney Airport that his luggage contained a bomb, the airline’s second such hoax in a week. The airliner says no explosives were found and that airport police were holding the man for questioning. It says Flight CI052 departed for Taipei on schedule on Thursday night with 296 passengers. Another China Airlines flight to Sydney was delayed for several hours at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport last week following a bomb hoax.
■TRANSPORT
Taipei mulls free parking
Roadside parking spots in Taipei City could be free of charge on Saturdays beginning next year, the Taipei City Government said yesterday. The city’s Department of Transportation has already cancelled roadside parking fees on Sundays. Department chief Lo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢) said a plan is currently being drafted that will cancel roadside parking fees on Saturdays around residential areas and office buildings. Parking fees will remain at locations with greater parking needs, such as Taipei Railway Station, Taipei Zoo and Shilin Night Market, he said. The plan is scheduled to take effect next year, Lo said.
■DIPLOMACY
Yang departs on trip
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) departed Taipei on Thursday night on a diplomatic trip that will take him to Panama, Paraguay and Saint Lucia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Yang will meet leaders of the three Latin American and Caribbean countries, which all maintain formal ties with Taiwan. Yang will review cooperation projects and discuss relations with high-ranking officials of the three countries, the ministry said. During his stay in Panama, Yang will also preside over a meeting that will bring together senior officials from all of Taiwan’s embassies and representative offices in Central and South America and the Caribbean to chart a new regional diplomatic working agenda, the ministry added.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its