TRANSPORTATION
Debris shuts ferry services
Ferry services from Taitung County’s Fugang Fishing Port (富岡漁港) to Green Island (綠島) were canceled yesterday after the port was overrun by driftwood that flowed in after Severe Tropical Storm Bailu battered southern and eastern Taiwan on Saturday. A 1 hectare “wood ocean” formed in waters around the port on Sunday and the debris began moving into the port early yesterday due to a prevailing air current, making it impossible for ferries to navigate the port, the Eastern Maritime Affairs Center said. The debris would likely be cleared within two to three days at the latest, Taitung County Agriculture Department Director Hsu Rui-kuei (許瑞貴) said. The wood has no economic value and would be discarded as waste after being collected, the Taitung Forest District Office said.
EARTHQUAKE
Quake jolts eastern Taiwan
A magnitude 3.7 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan at 4:41am yesterday, with no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the Central Weather Bureau said. The quake’s epicenter was 5.6km west of Hualien County Hall, in Jian Township (吉安), at a depth of 12.7km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity, which measures the strength of shaking produced by a quake, was highest in Tongmen Village (銅門) in Hualien, where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale. The earthquake also produced an intensity of 2 in Nantou County and an intensity of 1 in Yilan County and Taichung, the bureau said.
CRIME
Police seize NT$4m of drugs
Police on Monday last week seized 10,655 packets of drugs disguised as instant coffee with an estimated street value of NT$4 million (US$127,182), the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The CIB said it earlier this month launched a joint investigation after receiving a tip-off that narcotics were being disguised as instant coffee at a residence in northern Taiwan for distribution. After monitoring the residence for several days, police raided the rental apartment in Keelung, where a 34-year-old suspect surnamed Tu (杜) was believed to be running a drug operation, the agency said. Police seized 40g of ketamine, 10,655 packets of drugs weighing 110kg, two mobile phones, zipper bags and an electronic scale, it said. Tu, who has a prior conviction for a drug-related offense, was arrested. The drug packets mainly contained emerging drug mephedrone, also known as “meow meow,” and nimetazepam, marketed under the brand names Erimin and Lavol, the CIB said.
SPORTS
Archer wins gold in Spain
Tai Yu-hsuan (戴宇軒) on Sunday won Taiwan’s first gold medal at the World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid after he beat Caleb Javier Urbina Zapata of Mexico in the recurve cadet men’s final. It was the last day of the tournament. The 16-year-old archer was down 3-1 in the match after losing the first set 28-27 to Urbina Zapata and tying the second set at 26. However, Tai, a junior at Mingder High School in New Taipei City, tied the match by winning the third set 28-26 and then finished with two near perfect sets, which he won 29-28 and 29-28 to take gold. Earlier in the day, Tai and his two teammates, Su Yu-yang (蘇于洋) and Liu Tai-yen (劉泰言), won a silver medal in the recurve cadet men’s team event after losing the final to a South Korean team.
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