TRANSPORTATION
THSRC, JR Central sign deal
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Central Japan Railway Co (JR Central) on expanding their sharing of knowledge and experience related to railway operations. The MOU signed in Tokyo on Tuesday would “deepen the bilateral strategic partnership,” enabling the two sides to hold further exchanges on managing high-speed rail operations, service and maintenance, the THSRC said in a statement yesterday. JR Central has long supported THSRC by providing consulting services and technical assistance, including training THSRC drivers before Taiwan’s high-speed rail was launched. Their future cooperation is expected to further improve the professional capabilities of THSRC staff and help them provide better services, it said. THSRC chairman Chiang Yao-chung (江耀宗) said the two companies had already been close partners prior to the agreement, as Taiwan’s high-speed rail was the first project outside Japan to use the Shinkansen technology.
CRIME
Men arrested over drugs
The Aviation Police Bureau on Tuesday said two Taiwanese men arrested for smuggling amphetamine, a category 3 drug, into Taiwan have been indicted by prosecutors, who requested prison sentences of at least seven years, while a third suspect remains at large. The APB and Taipei Customs discovered a batch of whey protein powder imported from the US containing 8.646kg of amphetamine with a street value of nearly NT$10 million (US$316,506) said Chen Mien-tsung (陳綿宗), an officer in the bureau’s Criminal Investigation Police Brigade. The bureau set up an investigation team and asked the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office to lead the investigation, Chen said. The team discovered that a drug ring, allegedly led by a man surnamed Lin (林), nicknamed “Kuang Tou” (bareheaded), had been smuggling amphetamine from the US into Taiwan by concealing it in high-protein diet supplements. Two men, surnamed Wang (王) and Chang (張), were allegedly instructed to smuggle the drugs into the nation starting from March. Investigators in May arrested the two men as they picked up the drugs at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Lin, who is also wanted in connection with other crimes, including fraud and money laundering, a police officer said. After the arrest, the two men were questioned by police they admitted that they smuggled drugs into Taiwan, Chen said.
WEATHER
Mercury expected to drop
The clement weather that has lasted for more than a week is expected to continue until this evening before seasonal northeasterly winds pick up again, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Tuesday. The partly sunny weather would continue across the nation until today, with daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan of 26°C to 28°C and lows of 19°C to 21°C, CWA forecaster Huang En-hong (黃恩鴻) said. However, the weather is expected to change starting this evening, including increased rain at nighttime. The unstable weather is expected to last until Saturday. With the winds’ impact, temperatures are expected to drop to 17°C to 18°C across Taiwan, while the highs would reach 21°C to 22°C in the north, 22°C to 23°C in the east, and 26°C to 27°C in the central and southern areas, Huang said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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