WEATHER
Storm bringing rain
Tropical Storm Krosa, which formed near the Philippines early yesterday, is expected to bring rain to the north and east of the nation today, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As of 8am, Krosa was centered about 1,160km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving west at 24kph. It is packing maximum sustained winds of 72kph, gusting to 101kph, the bureau said. Krosa is not likely to affect Taiwan directly, but may cause high waves along coastal areas and unstable weather nationwide until tomorrow, it said. Limited showers are likely in the north and east of the country over the weekend, the bureau said.
CRIME
Feces-slingers sought
Taipei police said they have identified a possible suspect involved in Monday’s attack by two scooter-riding feces-flingers on singer Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰). Police said they tracked the license plate of the scooter used in the incident to a 22-year-old man whose whereabouts are currently unknown. The police said they have asked the man’s father to contact him and convince him to come forward. Hsiao narrowly escaped the attack outside of his home when two suspects hurled excrement into his car as he was on his way to work. The excrement missed Hsiao, but his driver and other passengers were not so lucky. The driver also sustained injuries when he attempted to stop the poo-slingers.
SOCIETY
Power lines removed
Construction workers on Tuesday removed several power lines to ensure better views for visitors to Dutch conceptual artist Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck in Taoyuan County. Five cables that were preventing people from enjoying an unobstructed front view of the inflatable art installation were brought down and laid in ditches, according to the Taoyuan County Cultural Affairs Bureau. Three remaining cables have been left where they are because they do not affect photograph opportunities, the bureau said. The sculpture went on display on Saturday as part of a landscape art festival in the county, and had attracted an estimated 930,000 visitors as of Tuesday.
TOURISM
Peru seeking more visitors
Peru is hoping to see 4,000 visitors from Taiwan by the end of this year as a result of burgeoning economic and cultural ties, Commercial Office of Peru in Taipei Director Gycs Gordon said yesterday. “Taiwan is one of the fastest-growing markets for us,” Gordon said, adding that the number of Taiwanese visiting his nation has been growing by 20 percent annually. Gordon said Peru hopes 10,000 tourists from Taiwan will visit by the end of 2016 following a series of promotional events hosted by the Peruvian Commission for the Promotion of Exports, which launched its first road show in Taiwan yesterday. Commission members will be meeting with Taiwanese travel agents through trade fairs and business-to-business events during their stay.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS