TRANSPORT
False alarm delays HSR
Three Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp trains were delayed yesterday as a result of a bomb threat that turned out to be a false alarm. Nearly 1,000 passengers were affected by the delays, which ranged from 14 to 32 minutes. The incident started at 12:48pm, when an attendant found a note indicating a bomb threat in the sixth carriage of train No. 1155, prior to its departure from Taipei. The attendant reported the note to railway police, who later discovered that the note had been left behind after a bomb threat drill a few days ago. Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp has been holding bomb threat drills regularly since a suitcase containing explosives was found in a toilet on one of its trains in April last year.
CULTURE
Flora exhibition opens today
Legacy burnishing was the focus as Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) toured a flora exhibition at the Taipei Expo Park in the Yuanshan (圓山) area yesterday, extolling the lasting benefits he said were brought by the Taipei International Flora Exhibition, one of the largest international events hosted under his watch. The exhibition is set to open at the site today. Hau said that hosting the exhibition would bring close to 3 million visitors to the Expo Park, adding that the Taipei City Council had required the city government to guarantee at least 3 million visitors per year to the park when it was first built. Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Wen-te (陳文德) said the nation’s yearly flower exports have doubled to US$200 million since the flora exhibition, thanks to the international visibility the exhibition brought the nation’s industry. This year’s exhibition has an international travel theme, with locally grown flower exhibits displayed around models of international landmarks. The exhibition runs until Dec. 14.
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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