■ Defense
F-16 makes forced landing
An F-16 fighter on a routine training mission landed at an airport in Taichung yesterday after developing a minor electrical problem. The Air Force Command Headquarters said a generator signal flashed in the fighter, which departed from Hualien air base in eastern Taiwan, on a flight over western Taiwan. It landed safely 20 minutes later at Chingchuankang air base for a checkup. It denied reports that the F-16 had a fuel leak problem before being forced to land. "The pilot followed standard operation procedures and landed at the nearest airfield for a safety check," air force officials said.
■ Weather
Cold snap ends tomorrow
The nation's weather will remain under the influence of a cold front today, the Central Weather Bureau said. The bureau predicted that temperatures will drop to 13?C in the north and 15?C in the south. Bureau officials said that there might be showers in the north and east of the country today and that residents in coastal areas and Hengchun Peninsula should expect unusually strong gusts. Temperatures will begin to rise again tomorrow, though bureau officials said that residents in the north will have a wet weekend. Another cold front is expected to arrive in the middle of next week.
■ Transportation
Kaohsiung MRT free at first
An 8.6km section of the Red Line of Kaohsiung's rapid transit system will begin service in October free of charge, Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) officials said yesterday. The KRTC, which has been rocked by a corruption scandal, said the 12-minute run from R3 station at Hsiaokang's Hanmin Road to R8 station at FE21Mega shopping mall will open to the public at the end of October. The 8.6km ride will eventually cost NT$25. The KRTC said the offer of free rides would not affect its 36-year contract with the city government, which includes six years of construction and 30 years of operating the system. Construction of the network began in 2001. Underground digging is complete except for five tunnels that are scheduled to be completed in April, followed by the laying of track. The KRTC recently suffered a scandal in which former KRTC vice chairman Chen Min-hsien (陳敏賢) and several city officials were indicted on charges of corruption, malfeasance and conflict of interest.
■ Society
Hearing impaired get a hand
The Taipei City Government has since the start of this year offered sign language interpretation services free of charge to residents with hearing disabilities, officials said yesterday. The 24-hour service was launched in cooperation with the Agape Social Welfare Association, according to officials at the city's Department of Social Welfare. The officials said all registered Taipei residents with hearing disabilities can apply for the service with the association provided they do so at least five days before the service is needed. The number to call is 0800-365-224. Officials said that the service is mainly for those living in Taipei City and that if the applicants need to handle business outside of the city, Taipei County is as far as the service reaches. For the out-of-city service, only cases for communication or contact purposes with regard to business, medical visits, schooling or attendance at seminars will be accepted, they said. Official statistics show that there were more than 14,700 hearing-impaired residents in Taipei City as of the end of last year.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
President William Lai (賴清德) today called for greater mutual aid between Taiwan and Japan in a post commemorating the 15th anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, saying that “true friendship reveals itself in hardship.” The magnitude 9 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in Japan, and the ensuing tsunami left 18,500 people dead or unaccounted for, and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Japan and Taiwan share a close bond built on mutual aid and trust, Lai said on Facebook, adding that he hopes they would
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