DEFENSE
Balloon wreckage retrieved
The military found the wreckage of a suspected Chinese weather balloon on an island near China on Thursday. The army’s Dongyin Area Command said in a statement that solders found the wreckage of a suspected weather balloon believed to have originated in China earlier in the day. Dongyin Island (東引) about 40km from China’s coast, is one of the closest Taiwan-controlled territories to China. The balloon, with a 1m diameter and simplified Chinese characters reading: “Taiyuan No. 1 Radio Factory,” “GTS13 Radiosonde” and “Meteorological Instrument,” was found at about 11am at a shooting range, the command said. The army would examine the wreckage, the statement said. Taiyuan No. 1 Radio Factory, based in Taiyuan City, manufactures mechanical and weather instruments.
FOREIGN AID
Relief moving via Lebanon
Taiwan-based non-governmental organization Mustard Seed Mission on Thursday said relief supplies donated to Syria following the deadly Feb. 6 earthquake would be delivered via Lebanon. Getting humanitarian aid to disaster-hit areas in Syria has proven challenging, as the country remains ravaged by political turmoil, the group said in a statement. The first batch of supplies shipped from Taiwan on Monday has been unable to enter Syria from Turkey, despite considerable effort, and would instead to be delivered through Lebanon, the group said. Blankets, coats, diapers, sleeping bags and air mattresses were dispatched by air on Thursday and are expected to reach Beirut on Monday, it said. Supplies are to enter Syria via road the next day, with the assistance of relief workers from the Habibi International organization and local church groups, it added.
SOCIETY
Athlete found dead in shaft
A member of Taiwan’s gold medal-winning dragon boat team at the 2018 Asian Games was found dead at the bottom of a shaft of a construction site in Taoyuan on Thursday, local police said. Workers at the site of a sewage project in the city’s Taoyuan District (桃園) discovered a man floating in water that had accumulated at the bottom of the 14m-deep shaft as they were preparing to pump the water out, police said. The man was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The deceased was confirmed to be 28-year-old Taoyuan resident Chen Yu-an (陳俞安), who was a member of a Taiwanese dragon boat team that won three medals at the 2018 Asian Games. CCTV footage showed Chen crashing a motorcycle through a fence near the opening of the shaft, and then falling into the 3m-wide hole. The Sports Administration yesterday expressed sadness over Chen’s death and said it would provide his family with NT$200,000 in condolence money.
CRIME
Security leak gets jail time
The Shilin District Court on Thursday sentenced a former trainee at the National Security Bureau to three years and eight months in prison for leaking the identities of intelligence agents. The woman, surnamed Chou (周), began training in March 2018. However, she did not meet performance standards and failed the training program two months later. On Oct. 28, 2020, Chou made a sexual harassment allegation on the Professional Technology Temple forum against officials at the bureau’s training center, in which she disclosed the real names, pseudonyms and ranks of the center’s chief and deputy chief.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese