Thirteen bombs believed to date from World War II were remotely detonated yesterday by navy divers off the northeast coast of New Taipei City.
The bombs were discovered on Monday last week in Mao’ao Bay (卯澳灣) by a recreational diver who reported spotting suspicious objects, and confirmed the following day.
The bombs were found at a depth of 10m to 13m near what appeared to be an airplane propeller, not far from an elementary school near the shore in Gongliao District (貢寮), authorities said.
Photo courtesy of Navy Command
The area was immediately cordoned off with buoys to keep divers, fishing boats and other vessels away.
An estimated 1,300kg of explosives were used in the detonation, which took place at 10:15am about 600m from the shore.
The rusted exterior of the bombs made it impossible to confirm their make and model, but it is believed they dated back to World War II.
Photo courtesy of Navy Command
Thanks to proper disaster prevention plans, no injuries or financial loss were reported from the detonation, Gongliao District chief Chung Yao-lai (鍾耀磊) said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS