WEATHER
Rain forecast for next week
The nation could expect a rainy week ahead due to the humidity brought by a southwest monsoon and the influence of a low air pressure system, the Central Weather Bureau said on Thursday. Tropical storm Ewiniar, which formed on Wednesday, would soon weaken and become a tropical depression after making landfall in China, bureau forecaster Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said, adding that the rise of the southwest monsoon would move the system toward the east and force it into the Bashi Channel. This development would increase chances of rain nationwide between Sunday and Thursday next week, Lin said, adding that isolated showers are forecast for northern and central Taiwan. Rainfall in the south and the east would be more substantial and occur across a broader area during this period, he said.
CHARITY
Rummage sale at TAS
The Taipei American School (TAS) Orphanage Club is to host its 48th annual spring rummage sale today from 10am to 5pm. Club members have collected a wide variety of new and second-hand clothing, household items, shoes, games, toys and electronics. The sale is to be held in the school’s forecourt and lobby come rain or shine. All of the proceeds are to go to needy children and orphans in Taiwan and overseas. The school is at No. 800, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6 in Tianmu (天母).
EDUCATION
Students row around island
Students from five schools on Pingtung County’s Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) on Thursday rowed canoes around the island to celebrate graduating. About 120 students from Liouciou Junior High School and Baisha, Liouciou, Cyuande and Tiannan elementary schools participated, along with an escourt of 500 parents, volunteers and coast guards. This was the second time the Children of Liouciou: Navigation Challenge and Ocean Exploration Education event was held, with safety and navigation services provided by volunteers from Outward Bound Taiwan and Siaoliouciou Ocean Volunteers. The event gave the children a rare opportunity to connect with the seafaring traditions of their forebears and meets the national education principles of encouraging initiative and public engagement, and working toward the common good, said Liouciou Elementary School principal Chang Chien Cheng-feng (張簡振豐), who was the event’s main organizer. The challenge consisted of a 12km course and was completed via relays in five hours from 7am to midday, he said.
CRIME
Kinmen nabs 23 for fraud
Twenty-three suspects have been detained in Kinmen’s largest telecom fraud ring bust, police in the outlying county said yesterday. Twenty-one people, including a minor and four women, were arrested at a villa in Jinning Township (金寧) on Wednesday, and 34 iPads, 46 iPhones, three UBS devices, desktop computers and 22 SIM cards were seized, Kinmen police chief Yu Wen-sheng (游文勝) told a news conference. Two other key suspects, identified only by the surnames Chen (陳) and Chiang (姜), were also arrested in the township after a tracking operation that started in April, he said. The group, targeting people living in China, might have defrauded its victims of NT$6 million (US$200,000), he said. The 23 suspects, all from Taiwan proper, were sent to an anti-
crime center in Taichung on Thursday.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
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