TRAVEL
Bullet train hits goat
A train heading from Taipei to Kaohsiung was delayed by 15 minutes on Tuesday after hitting a goat that had inexplicably found its way onto the high-speed rail’s tracks, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said. No damage or casualties were reported in the accident, except for a minor injury suffered by the animal, a company spokesman said. The incident took place at 4:03pm near the line’s 103km marker in Miaoli County’s Zaociao Township (造橋), when the train driver discovered that he had hit a “foreign object,” which was later found to be a goat, the spokesman said. The driver stopped the train immediately to assess the situation, making sure the train was not damaged before continuing the journey, he said. As a result, the train reached its destination 15 minutes later than its scheduled arrival time of 5:06pm. THSRC will look into how the animal found its way onto the tracks, which are protected by fences. The goat has been returned to its owner.
SCIENCE
Forensics king Yang dies
Locally renowned forensics expert Yang Ri-song (楊日松) died yesterday of colon cancer at the age of 84, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. Yang, sometimes described as “Taiwan’s Sherlock Holmes,” worked in the field of forensics for almost 50 years and served as a consultant at the Institute of Forensic Medicine after he retired. A graduate of National Taiwan University College of Medicine, he conducted tens of thousands of dissections and became a legend by solving some of the nation’s most bizarre murder cases. Colleagues praised Yang as the nation’s most important pioneer in forensic science. Yang’s family expressed the desire for a low-profile funeral, the bureau said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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