CRIME
Pawnshop hit by bullets
A 17-year-old surnamed Liu (劉) yesterday turned himself in after shooting more than 50 bullets into a closed pawnshop in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城), the Tucheng Police Precinct said. Liu took a taxi to the pawnshop on Sichuan Road and at 8:52am shot in the store’s direction, leaving 65 bullet holes in the store’s steel shutters and nearby scooters, police said. He took the same taxi to the Banciao Precinct’s Daguan Police Station and turned himself in at about 8:55am, police said. Police cordoned off the area, and found a gun and two magazines at the site, they said. No one was injured, they said, adding that they are looking into potential motives.
Photo copied by Hsu Sheng-lun, Taipei Times
SOCIETY
Fire kills three people
A fire in a third-floor apartment in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) late on Wednesday killed three people and left one in critical condition, police said yesterday. Eight people, all from the same family, were pulled from the blaze by firefighters, who received a report of the incident on Danhai Road at 11:13pm. A 74-year-old woman, her four-year-old grandson and her 52-year-old son were pronounced dead at a hospital after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, police said. The woman’s 58-year-old daughter, who also had a cardiac arrest, was resuscitated, but was in a critical condition, police said. Three other grandchildren, aged 19, 24 and 30, and the deceased man’s 42-year-old wife sustained minor injuries, police said. Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the fire.
CUSTOMS
Vitamins seized at border
A shipment of multivitamin tablets imported by warehouse club Costco was seized at the border after being found to contain residues of a banned preservative, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday. A total of 1,478.86kg of Webber Naturals’ nutritional tablets for men supplied by Factors Group of Nutritional Companies Inc was confiscated after sample testing on Tuesday detected 0.01g/kg of ethyl p-hydroxybenzoate, traces of which are not permitted in vitamins. The nation allows a limited permissible level of ethyl p-hydroxybenzoate in bean curd skin, dried tofu, soy sauce and non-
carbonated drinks, the FDA said, adding that it has increased random tests of vitamin products from Canada to 20 to 50 percent of shipments from 2 to 10 percent. Other items rejected and destroyed or returned by customs include 2,000kg of basmati rice from India, 27,600kg of fresh pumpkin from China and 780kg of marshmallows from the Philippines, it said.
EDUCATION
Universities to merge
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) and Hwa Hsia University of Technology have agreed to merge, the two institutes said on Tuesday last week. It would be the nation’s first merger between a public and private university, they said in a statement. The plan awaits approval by the Ministry of Education. Hwa Hsia would not enroll students for the 2023-2024 academic year and would close after the 2025-2026 academic year. Students whose graduation is delayed would be eligible to continue their studies under a special program arranged by the ministry, the statement said. To protect the rights and interest of faculty and staff, Hwa Hsia would provide severance and retirement packages upon termination of employment, while Taiwan Tech would hire some of them for project teacher and staff positions over the next four to five years based on employment contracts, it said.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
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