ARTS
Duck to return to Kaohsiung
Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s famous yellow rubber duck is set to return to Kaohsiung late this month for its first appearance in the southern port city since it floated around Glory Pier (光榮碼頭) 10 years ago, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday. The giant yellow rubber duck is to bob around Love River Bay from Jan. 27 to Feb. 25, Chen said at a press event. He said the city government had applied in September for the duck to return for this year’s Kaohsiung Lantern Festival, which began earlier last month and is to run until Feb. 28. Hofman approved the request after visiting and inspecting the bay, during which time he expressed surprise at how the city had progressed over the last decade, Chen said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
SEISMICITY
Earthquake hits Yilan
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan at 5:57am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter of the temblor was in Yilan’s Suao Township (蘇澳), 14.2km south-southeast of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 47.4km, the agency’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity was highest in Yilan, where it measured a three on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of two in Hualien County and New Taipei City. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In other news, the Central Weather Administration yesterday said that today the weather would remain cool in northern and northeastern Taiwan, with highs of 17°C to 19°C predicted. It is expected to be as high as 22°C to 24°C in central and southern Taiwan. Occasional showers were forecast for Taipei and New Taipei City, the northern coast in Keelung, and eastern Taiwan, while the other areas could see cloudy or sunny skies, it said. People living south of Hsinchu and the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu have a higher chance of seeing the sunrise, while areas north of Taoyuan and the eastern half of Taiwan are expected to have a cloudy sky during the sunrise, it added.
SOCIETY
Man and son drown
A father and son drowned early on Saturday in a campground in Miaoli County’s Jhoulan Township (卓蘭), the county’s fire bureau said. The bureau said it received a report at 12:45pm from a campground owner that their surveillance camera record showed that a father in his 30s and his two-year-old son had fallen into the pond inside the campground at about 8am. A search and rescue operation later found the father and son in the water without vital signs and they were pronounced dead after being admitted to the hospital. The size of the pond was about 400m2 and three-meters deep. The campground owner said the father and son went to the area with other family members on Friday night, but right before they were about to have lunch at about noon on Saturday, they found the father and son had disappeared and asked the campground owner to check their whereabouts using the surveillance cameras. The police said that based on their initial investigation, the father, surnamed Hsieh (謝), took his son to the pond on Saturday morning and found that his son had fallen into the water when he was preparing fishing gear and jumped into the pond to rescue the child.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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