TOURISM
Bus crash kills three
A tour bus went off a road as it was heading toward Alishan (阿里山) and crashed into an electricity pole yesterday, killing three people and injuring 26. Four of the injured were in a serious condition and rushed to two hospitals in nearby Chiayi City with the other injured passengers. The three dead had no vital signs when they were sent to the hospital, police said. The bus was one of seven vehicles taking a tour group of emergency rescue volunteers and their families from Puzih City (朴子), Chiayi County, to an Aboriginal cultural park on Alishan. The cause of the accident is under investigation, police said.
PHOTO:CNA
CULTURE
Academy to open in LA
The first academy aimed at promoting Taiwanese culture will open in Los Angeles next spring, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) said on Saturday. Kung Chung-cheng (龔中誠), -director-general of the office in Los Angeles, said that preparations, including course planning and hiring teachers, have largely been completed. The planned courses will cover calligraphy, glove puppetry, Taiwanese tea culture and language training. A crucial feature of the academy will be the teaching of traditional Chinese characters, in contrast with the simplified version used in China and taught in Confucius Institutes set up by Beijing worldwide. The Taiwan Academy would be easily differentiated from the Chinese institutes because they would focus more on promoting culture and introduce customs and cultural traits that are distinctive to Taiwan, the office said. Language training will also be available to complement the academy’s cultural component, it said.
ATHLETICS
Soochow marathon held
Japanese runners yesterday won the men’s and women’s titles at this year’s Soochow International Ultra-Marathon and successfully defended their titles in the 24-hour race. Ryochi Sekiya, 43, ran a total of 268.1km in 24 hours to win the men’s division in the Taipei competition for the sixth time. Mami Kudo outran all of her competitors to win the women’s division with a distance of 239.3km, well short of her world record of 254.425km set last year. France’s Anne-Celile Fontaine finished second. Taiwan’s Luo Wei-ming (羅蔚銘) and 51-year-old Huang Yen-ling (黃堰鈴) took third place in the men’s and women’s divisions respectively, with distances of 229.2km and 204.4km. Luo said the ultramarathon, which began at 9am on Saturday, was particularly difficult because there were no breaks and running through the night interrupted his sleep cycle. Huang, who participated in the Taitung Super Triathon in October, said the ultra-marathon was more challenging because runners were easily bored circling the same track around the clock. The event, which took place on the 400m track at Soochow University’s Waishuangxi campus, was held for the 10th time. Thirty runners from around the world participated in the event. To track the runners’ laps and distances run, the university invested more than NT$1 million (US$33,000) on a chip-timing system to increase accuracy. Tied to the runners’ legs, the chips automatically sent the data to a computer, which could then be seen in real time on the official Web site.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
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
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
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