■ WEATHER
Nation gets first snowfall
PHOTO: CENTRAL WEATHER BUREAU
Visitors to Yushan (玉山) yesterday afternoon had a half-hour glimpse of the nation's first snowfall this winter. The Central Weather Bureau said the snowfall began at about 2:05pm and ended at 2:35pm. The depth of snow was less than 1cm. The temperature yesterday morning hit minus 3oC. At 3:30pm, however, the temperature rose slightly to minus 1oC. The bureau said the snowfall was brought by the accumulation of humidity and the arrival of a cold front. It said the weather would become drier once the frontal system had left Taiwan, with lower chances of snow.
■ CRIME
Smuggled cigarettes seized
Kaohsiung Port police seized more than 500 cases of smuggled foreign cigarettes, including some rare brands, aboard a local fishing boat at Kaohsiung Port on Sunday, police said yesterday. Police detained the ship captain and four crew members for questioning after discovering that the fishing gear on the boat had not been used during their 20-day fishing journey, police said. The captain, surnamed Tsai (蔡), claimed that all the fish caught over the past 20 days had been sold before they returned home. However, he could not say who the fish had been sold to or where the cigarettes had come from, police said, adding that they were still investigating.
■ CRIME
High Court rejects appeal
The Taiwan High Court yesterday rejected a request by Taipei prosecutors that a former agent of the Investigation Bureau arrested last Tuesday for allegedly sending threatening mail to the first family and a number of legislators and government officials be detained. The Taipei District Court on Friday rejected the request against Yang Ching-hai (楊清海) and released him on NT$100,000 bail. Taipei prosecutors immediately appealed the case, but the high court yesterday turned down the appeal. Yang was arrested last Tuesday at his residence in Taipei County, where police also found two pistols and 45 bullets. Police said Yang had sent a postcard threatening to sexually assault President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) daughter and to kidnap his grandsons.
■ EDUCATION
Fu Jen receives big donation
The Department of Chemistry at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei County received a donation of US$1.5 million from alumni earlier this month, the biggest donation ever made by alumni to any privately run university in Taiwan. Hsu Wen-hsien (許文賢), director of the university's Department of Chemistry, expressed his appreciation to the donors -- several Fu Jen alumni who preferred to remain anonymous -- and said the donation would be used to finance a foundation for the development of the department. Hsu said the interest from the donation would be used toward scholarships and to meet the costs of improving the department's teaching materials and research facilities. He said that his department has already received US$300,000 of the donation, which will be paid over five years.
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
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
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