WEATHER
Temperature swings
Day-night temperature differences across most of the nation have been significant since Thursday, reaching “highly dangerous” levels in some areas of northern Taiwan and “dangerous” in other parts of the country, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Temperature differences within 24 hours of more than 13°C are “highly dangerous,” while an 11-degree difference is “dangerous,” 9 degrees is “alert-level” and 7 degrees is designated “take notice,” the CWA said. Drastic temperature are caused by radiative cooling, a phenomenon in which the ground rapidly loses heat under clear skies and dry conditions, the CWA said.
Photo provided by the Central Weather Administration
SPORT
NBA Taiwan night held
The NBA’s Washington Wizards hosted a Taiwanese Heritage Night during their match against the Orlando Magic on Friday. The Taiwan-themed event, sponsored by the nonprofit Millennial Global Youth, featured a bucket hat giveaway for ticketholders at the Capitol One Arena in Washington. The hats came in two designs: one was solid red with the Wizards’ team logo and the Chinese characters for “Washington Wizards,” while the other featured a white background adorned with Taiwan’s national flag. The nonprofit also produced a limited edition of 300 jerseys given to ticket holders featuring the word “Taiwan” and the number “52,” which phonetically resembles “I love Taiwan” in Chinese. Millennial Global Youth was founded by a group of Taiwanese living in Washington, and works to promote multiculturalism and diversity.
FIRE
Tainan blaze kills one
A woman was killed after a fire broke out in an industrial zone in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康) early yesterday morning, the city’s fire bureau said. The bureau received a report of the fire in the Asia-Pacific Industrial Zone on Zhongzheng Road at 2:11am, it said. Firefighters who arrived at the scene quickly learned that a woman was trapped on the building’s second floor and they immediately began battling the blaze using water hoses, it said. The woman was later found dead at the scene, the bureau said. Preliminary investigations by police and firefighters identified the deceased as a 76-year-old woman. A total of 115 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire, which was eventually extinguished at 5:55am, it said. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
DIPLOMACY
Lin meets new envoy
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) on Friday met with new Somaliland Representative to Taiwan Mahmoud Adam Jama Galaal, with both expressing hope for strengthened bilateral ties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Galaal was appointed by the new government of Somaliland after Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi was inaugurated on Dec. 12 last year. He arrived in Taipei at the end of January. Lin welcomed Galaal to Taiwan and expressed hope for continued bilateral collaboration in multiple fields, including education, healthcare, agriculture, information and communications, security, and energy resources, the ministry said in a news release. Galaal said that Somaliland is keen to deepen collaboration with Taiwan, and thanked the nation for funding various projects in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, including the expansion of the main road connecting Egal International Airport to the city center and the construction of a medical center.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
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