■ SOCIETY
Mystery woman kills self
Taipei City police were trying yesterday to establish the identity of a young woman who walked into a hardware store, asked to buy a knife and then stabbed herself to death with it. Era TV said a woman in her 20s walked into a hardware store in Neihu District (內湖) on Thursday evening and told the owner she wanted to buy a fruit knife. The owner told the woman where to look. Then she heard a thud, and when she went to investigate, she saw the woman had thrust an 11cm knife into her chest. The woman pushed it into her chest several more times and then died as the shopowner was calling the police. Police say the woman had no ID on her. The shop owner was so shaken by the incident that she has removed all knives from the shelves.
■ MEDIA
Kinmen takes center stage
A television documentary to premiere on Monday tells the story of Kinmen, whose history has often been forgotten or is unknown, said Kinmen County Deputy Commissioner Yang Chung-chuan (楊忠全). The documentary attempts to explore the island group, which has been described as the "Asian Gibraltar" because of its unique strategic position, through its culture, architecture and history, said Tommy Lin (林東民), vice president and general manager of Discovery Networks Asia's Taiwan Office.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
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,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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
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