■Travel
CKS passengers up
The CKS International Airport had 7,247 departing passengers on Saturday, the highest number since May 1, an official of the airport said yesterday. A total of 13,041 passengers passed through the airport in northern Taiwan Saturday, with arriving passengers totaling 5,794. The number of departing passengers has been greater than the number of arriving passengers for six consecutive days. On May 12, the number of daily arrivals and departures at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport dropped below 8,000 for the first time in 24 years.
■ Public works
Water supply sufficient
A water administration official said yesterday that he is optimistic the supply of water to the greater Taipei area in the second half of this year will be sufficient. An official of Feitsui Reservoir Administration said yesterday that Feitsui Reservoir, the main source of water supply to the greater Taipei area, received 81mm of rainfall on Saturday. Heavy monsoon rains added about 12 tonnes of water to the reservoir on Saturday, raising its water level 2.71m to 135.29m. The official said typhoons may bring more rains to the reservoir in the summer.
■ Nature
Lightning strikes voyeurs
As if it was divine retribution, three men were struck recently by lightning while they peeped at a pair of lovers having passionate sex in a car in a hillside area in Taipei, police said yesterday. Hiding in a broken hut and each using a high-powered telescope, the three were so transfixed on their activity that they were oblivious to the lightning bolt hitting the hut, the police said. The officer said the three, who remained speechless for several hours, suffered minor surface burns on their hands and legs, while their hair stood on end and their eyes gazed into the middle distance.
■ Crime
Counterfeit renmenbi seized
Police have seized US$12.09 million worth of forged Chinese renmenbi bank notes while tackling a criminal group, police said yesterday. Five suspects were arrested during a raid on a factory in the central city of Tali late Saturday, police said, adding that four others were also seized in a simultaneous crackdown in a nearby city. The police also found 20 cartons of counterfeit documents ranging from identification cards, land deeds, and car plates to car licenses. The criminal group had planned to launder the bogus bank notes in China and smuggle illegal firearms and drugs into the country, the police said.
■ Crime
Navy caper cracked
Two brothers have been arrested after police announced Sunday they had smashed a criminal ring involved in looting a bank at the country's largest naval base. The duo, only identified by their surname Chi (齊), confessed to the crime that stunned the country, police officer Hu Mu-yuan (胡木源) from Kaohsiung City told reporters. Police are hunting for another two suspects, who are still on the run. The Chi brothers were retired soliders from the Tsoying naval base in Kaohsiung, the police said. The crime happened Wednesday when the Chis and a third man, wearing surgical masks and naval uniforms, fired a warning shot after entering the bank.
Agencies
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS