AVIATION
EVA plane clips tail
EVA Airways said yesterday that no injuries were reported after one of its Boeing 747 cargo jets clipped the tail of an American Eagle passenger flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday. The carrier said all three crew members on its cargo flight 661, as well as 18 passengers and three crew members on Eagle flight 4265 — a much smaller Embraer 140 — were unhurt. The accident occurred at 12:42pm, when the EVA flight was about to depart for Anchorage, Alaska. When taxiing for takeoff, the aircraft’s right wing clipped the rudder of the Eagle jet, which had just landed. According to EVA, the incident is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board. The carrier has sent an MD-11 cargo plane with a repair unit to help transport the cargo the plane was carrying.
POLITICS
Web site offers ‘Ma vision’
A new video section was added to the Presidential Office Web site yesterday, offering the public what the office said would be “a view through the eyes of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).” A series of two-minute videos will be posted on the site at irregular intervals, allowing the public to see how Ma deals with different people and situations. Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said the aim was to record Ma’s interaction and dialogue with the public, because listening to the voices of the people at the grassroots level is a core component of his policy and decisionmaking process. “All hardworking Taiwanese” will be the protagonists of the videos, and their stories will show the Taiwanese hard work ethic, optimism and the hardships they suffer, he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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