WEATHER
Bureau issues mudslide alert
Work, online classes and COVID-19 vaccination efforts were yesterday suspended in five mountainous districts in Kaohsiung due to heavy rain and fears of mudslides. The districts affected were Jiasian (甲仙), Liukuei (六龜), Taoyuan (桃源), Maolin (茂林) and Namasia (那瑪夏). “Yellow” mudslide alerts, which are announced when the rain forecast exceeds an area’s warning threshold for debris flow, were issued for 53 rivers in the municipality. The Central Weather Bureau also issued an extremely heavy rain advisory for Kaohsiung, the Tainan metropolitan area, and Chiayi and Pingtung counties, indicating downpours of more than 200mm in 24 hours or 100mm in a three-hour period. Heavy rain advisories, where rainfall of more than 80mm in 24 hours or more than 40mm in one hour is expected, were also issued for Keelung, New Taipei City, Taichung and Chiayi City, as well as Changhua, Nantou and Yunlin counties.
SOCIETY
Author Yang Pin-chun dies
Literary writer Yang Pin-chun (楊品純), better known by his pen name Mei Xun (梅遜), on Monday passed away at the age of 96. Born in 1925 in China’s Jiangsu Province, Yang moved to Taiwan in 1949 when the communists won the Chinese Civil War. He wrote more than 20 million words during his career, many of them after he became visually impaired due to retinopathy in the 1980s, Wenhsun Magazine said in a statement on Monday. Despite his inability to see, Yang continued to work by dictating to his son, Wenhsun Magazine editor-in-chief Feng Te-ping (封德屏) said. Yang was a highly versatile writer who was well-known for his novels, essays, commentaries and even dictionaries, the statement said.
CRIME
National park ban defied
The National Police Agency (NPA) yesterday reminded the public that entry to national parks is still prohibited under a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert, and that those found contravening the rule risk a fine of up to NT$15,000. Since the level 3 alert was issued in the middle of last month, many people have disregarded the ban, NPA official Lin Kuan-ting (林冠廷) said. From May 19 to Sunday, there were 22 such cases, the majority of which were at Taroko National Park in Hualien County, Lin said. Twelve of the people who entered the parks were found not wearing masks and were fined for contravening the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), he said. Over the past month, police have warned 456 people who were either not wearing a mask, were trying to enter national parks, aiming to hold public gatherings or attempting to park illegally at national park compounds, Lin said, adding that 227 drivers were fined for the latter.
AGRICULTURE
NZ bans Taiwan mangoes
The Council of Agriculture (COA) has asked New Zealand to lift its import ban on Taiwanese mangoes, an official said yesterday. The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries stopped a shipment of Taiwanese mangoes and lychees at its border on Friday last week due to a problem with live fruit fly larvae, Radio New Zealand reported. COA official Tsou Hui-chuan (鄒慧娟) said the larvae were only found on the lychees, even though the mangoes were part of the same shipment. The mangoes passed quarantine inspection, but Taiwan still received a notice yesterday that a ban on mangoes had been imposed, Tsou said. The COA sent correspondence to the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei to ask that the ban on mangoes be lifted, Tsou said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
RSS