WEATHER
Mercury hits season low
A continental cold front and radiative cooling effects early yesterday sent temperatures in low-lying areas to their lowest this season, Central Weather Bureau data showed. The overnight low, recorded in Hsinchu County’s Baoshan Township (寶山) at 3:30am, was 7.9°C, the lowest of any low-lying area of Taiwan this season, while temperatures fell below 9°C in many other plains areas. Temperatures fell to 8.1°C in Ermei Township (峨眉), 8.2°C in Hualien County’s Guangfu Township (光復), and 8.4°C to 8.7°C in Miaoli, Yunlin and Taitung counties, the data showed. Although the cold front weakened yesterday, the bureau still issued a low-temperature warning of 10°C for this morning for Hsinchu, Miaoli, Yunlin, Nantou and Hualien counties.
SOCIETY
Book on uprising published
The Control Yuan has published a book about the Taiyuan Incident, an anti-government movement that involved political prisoners and prison guards at Taitung’s Taiyuan Prison, as well as young Aborigines sympathetic to their cause, Control Yuan member Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) said yesterday. The incident occurred on Feb. 8, 1970, when six political prisoners incarcerated at the prison tried to launch an armed revolution to take over the facility and to begin a campaign to achieve Taiwanese independence. The incident was deemed a failed uprising against the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime after the six were caught trying to bayonet a prison officer. Five of them were executed two months later, while Cheng Cheng-cheng (鄭正成) was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Wang said. Noting that the rebels have been deliberately erased from the nation’s history, Wang said that as the files on the incident have been made secret, people with differing political stances have their own interpretations of it. Therefore, the Control Yuan published a compilation of its investigative reports on the incident on the eve of Human Rights Day today, Wang said. According to the book, the prisoners have not been identified and it is not known whether they were revolutionaries, rebels or prison breakers. Their motivations are not known either, as all related files and documents have been concealed, it says. The establishment of justice involves the revelation of the truth, the book says. Saying “no truth, no reconciliation,” Wang called on the government to make political files available for public inspection.
SPORTS
Swimmer wins US silver
Wang Kuan-hung (王冠閎) on Saturday became the first Taiwanese to win a medal at the US Open Swimming Championships when he finished second in the men’s 200m butterfly. Wang, 17, a student from Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School, clocked 1 minute, 55.82 seconds to take the silver medal. The gold medal was won by American Luca Urlando in a record 1:55.60, while Jonathan Gomez of Colombia took bronze with a time of 1:56.90. Although Wang failed to break his personal best of 1:55.72, the result was better than expected, his coach Huang Chih-yung (黃智勇) said. The teenager had already qualified for next year’s Tokyo Olympics when he clocked 1:56.48 in the 200m butterfly at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in August. He would now head to Canada to undergo training, followed by the US, and Japan or Hong Kong, Huang said.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
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