■ Weather
Tropical storm develops
A low-pressure system in the Philippines has developed into a tropical storm, named Soudelor. It will be the sixth tropical storm or typhoon this year. According to the Central Weather Bureau's forecast, it could begin to affect the weather in Taiwan by tomorrow. According to an employee at the bureau, the direction of the storm changed from NW to NNW yesterday. This may give it a course through the waters off eastern Taiwan, but pressure variations over the Pacific Ocean will affect its course and distance from Taiwan. High pressure areas over the Pacific will slow the storm down and increasing the chances that it will affect Taiwan, while lower pressure areas will cause it to move faster and possibly bring abundant rainfall.
■ Weather
Monsoon rains not enough
The monsoon season has added 200 million cubic meters of waters to the three major reservoirs in southern Taiwan over the past seven days, but irrigation for summer crops might use up most of the water, a Chianan Farmland and Water Conservation Association official said yesterday. The official said that the week-long monsoon has added 160 million cubic meters of water to Tsengwen Reservoir, the biggest in Taiwan. The other two reservoirs in the region -- the Wushantou and Nanhua reservoirs -- have received 10 million cubic meters and 30 million cubic meters of water, respectively, during the period. The official said the first-stage irrigation for summer crops in southern Taiwan will begin June 26, which could use up 150 million cubic meters of water.
■ Culture
Hakka TV gets boost
Premier Yu Shyi-kun presided yesterday over a trial broadcast of an all-Hakkanese TV station as a prelude to its formal inauguration July 1. Political figures including Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), chairwoman of the Cabinet-level Council for Hakka Affairs, Su Tseng-Chang (蘇貞昌), Taipei county governor and representatives of various Hakka associations, also attended the event. Taiwan's first all-Hakkanese TV station, organized by the Council for Hakka Affairs, will broadcast a wide variety of TV programs in Hakkanese 24 hours a day. Yu said the establishment of the TV station answers a call by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to promote pluralistic culture and equality among different ethnic groups. According to statistics, there are four million Hakka people in Taiwan, although only half of them now speak Hakkanese fluently because Mandarin is more frequently and widely spoken.
■ Politics
Chen prays for peace
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and representatives of the Christian community in Taiwan attended the 2003 National Prayer Breakfast yesterday to pray for peace in Taiwan. It was the third consecutive such annual meeting that Chen has attended. After the prayer, Chen extended his gratitude to the country's frontline medical staff treating the victims of SARS, which has claimed 83 lives since its appearance in Taiwan in mid-March. The SARS situation has now calmed down, thanks to the efforts of the public and of religious groups, whose volunteers have played an important role in SARS relief work, Chen said. Chen noted that many people think that the SARS outbreaks and the recession are the two most serious problems in Taiwan. Chen said he sees spiritual reconstruction as the solution to many problems.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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