■ Weather
Plum rains to start
Though the temperature reached 37.9 degrees Celsius at Taitung County's Ta Wu Mountain (大武山) yesterday, the annual plum rain season is expected to begin in Taiwan today. The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday the chance of rain was high islandwide in the coming week. The chance of showers or scattered rain in northern Taiwan is 80 percent, and 60 percent in central Taiwan. Mountainous areas in southern Taiwan will see torrential rain, the CWB said.
■ Traffic
Tour bus crash kills four
A road accident in Miaoli County left four passengers dead and several other injured. A tour bus with 29 passengers, all staff members of Kaohsiung's Hsiung Ling Construction Company (雄菱工程公司), was on a tour in Miaoli. The bus reportedly fell into a valley near Miaoli's Shishan Farm (獅山農場) yesterday at around 5:20pm. Rescuers managed to get 27 people out of the bus, while two passengers were still stuck in the wreckage as of press time last night.
■ China relations
New Party China-bound
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said yesterday that the party will also dispatch a delegation to visit China following Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) ongoing China visit and People First Party Chairman James Soong's (宋楚瑜) upcoming trip on May 5. According to Yok, the New Party's planned trip will take place either this month or next. Yok and his daughter Yok Cheng-yi (郁正儀) appeared in Shanghai's Shangri-la Hotel yesterday to receive Lien.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
NEW CASE REPORTED: A man who returned from South Africa on a flight with the nation’s 460th and 461st cases has now tested positive for the disease The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that there is no need to test all arrivals to the nation for COVID-19, a policy the Executive Yuan supports. The center reported one new imported case, bringing the nation’s tally of confirmed cases to 477. The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 60s who on July 25 returned from South Africa, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman. The man had returned to Taiwan on the same flight as cases Nos. 460 and 461, reported on July 27, Chuang said. On July 24,
RSS