County and city governments yesterday announced closures of offices, schools and roads as Typhoon Doksuri approached Taiwan.
The Central Weather Bureau last night issued torrential rainfall warnings for Pingtung, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, and an extremely heavy rainfall warning for New Taipei City, Taichung and Nantou County.
The Taitung County Government first announced on Wednesday afternoon that weather conditions met its guidelines for closing offices and schools for today.
As of 9pm last night, the Web site of the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration showed that Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Penghu and Pingtung have also closed offices and schools for today, while Kinmen County has ordered offices and schools closed in the afternoon.
The Hsinchu County Government said that tour bus route No. 8, which runs on scenic mountain roads in Wufong Township (五峰), would not be in service today.
It added that it might also suspend services of express bus lines Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8, as well as the tourism lines Nos. 1, 2 and 6.
Photo: Johnson Liu, AFP
County residents should contact Champion Transportation Co (金牌客運有限公司) and Yosemite Bus Inc (科技之星交通股份有限公司) for further information on bus lines, it said.
The Directorate-General of Highways announced that it would seal off a section of Provincial Highway No. 24 in Pingtung County from Dewen (德文) to Shenshan Township (神山) in anticipation of potential landslides.
The section would reopen at 8am tomorrow, it said.
The section is the only road in or out of Wutai Township (霧台).
Wutai Mayor Dralrausu Pacekele yesterday told the Central News Agency that the township has 14 days of food and should be able to ride out the storm.
The Pingtung County Government said that the residents of Adiri Village (阿禮), the highest-altitude village in the county, had been evacuated on Tuesday, while the residents of Karamumudisane Village (佳暮) were evacuated yesterday.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration yesterday afternoon announced the grounding of all 246 domestic flights today.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS