WEATHER
Mercury to fall further
A cold air mass affecting the nation is forecast to continue, with temperatures expected to fall further today and tomorrow, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The cold air was moving southward, it said, adding that daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan yesterday fell to 17°C to 18°C, down from about 23°C a day earlier, with nighttime temperatures of 13°C to 14°C. In central and southern areas, highs yesterday were 24°C to 30°C with low of 15°C to 17°C at night, it said. Meanwhile, Typhoon Wutip was about 3,360km east-southeast of Taiwan’s southernmost tip as of 2am yesterday, the bureau said. The storm was moving in a west-northwesterly direction toward Japan and is unlikely to affect Taiwan directly, it said.
DIPLOMACY
Delegation lands in St Lucia
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) yesterday was to attend events to mark St Lucia’s 40th anniversary of independence as President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) special envoy after departing from Taiwan on Wednesday evening. Su and his delegation embarked on a seven-day trip, during which they are also to meet with top St Lucian officials, including Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, Senate President Jeannie Giraudy-McIntyre and House Speaker Andy Daniel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Su is also to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for the Hewanorra International Airport redevelopment project, which is financed with a loan from Taiwan. St Lucia celebrates its Independence Day on Feb. 22, the date in 1979 when it became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations.
CRIME
Brother suspected of murder
The Keelung Police Bureau yesterday said it suspected that a squabble between two brothers led to an apparent homicide. A man surnamed Chen (陳), 44, called police yesterday morning saying he had killed his younger brother, police said, adding that when officers arrived at their home, they found the older Chen holding a knife splattered with blood and muttering to himself, while the younger brother, 42, lay dead in a bedroom with multiple stab wounds. Chen was saying: “Why does he not work? It bothers me,” police said, adding that both men had a history of mental illness. Forensic evidence indicated that the younger brother was stabbed in the bathroom before he was dragged to the bedroom, where he bled to death, police said. Preliminary investigations suggest that the suspect was angry because his brother was unemployed, frequently drunk and was physically abusing their sexagenarian mother, who also lives at the home, police said.
SOCIETY
Gay surrogacy event planned
The world’s largest “boot camp” to help gay men become parents is to stage its first Asia event in Taipei next month to address demand for surrogates in the region, organizers said on Thursday. New York-based non-profit Men Having Babies stages events around the world to provide advice and support to LGBT people who want to become parents and plans to stage its first annual Asian event on March 9 and March 10. “We have been witnessing over the last three years a growing interest from Asia — mostly Chinese — intended parents coming to the United States for surrogacy,” Men Having Babies founder and executive director Ron Poole-Dayan said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS