Rescue and disaster relief agencies went into high alert across Taiwan yesterday as typhoon Dan threatened the earthquake-stricken areas with more land-slides and flooding.
Officials at the Council of Agriculture said the council's satellite surveillance stations spotted 853 new sites of land-slides during the week from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7, with more than 100 landslides per day on average. The new landslides were found in Nantou County (766), Taichung County (74), Yunlin County (20), and Miaoli County (3).
A survey by the council revealed yesterday that 40 of the new landslides are located in densely populated areas.
The council has ordered its central Taiwan office to keep a round-the-clock watch on satellite information, officials said.
Council chairman Peng Tso-kwei (
Heavy rains are also quickly filling Tsaoling Lake (草嶺潭), which had been created by the 921 earthquake. The Water Resources Department began digging a diversion canal yesterday to reduce water pressure. How-ever, officials at the department expressed concern that the impact of the diversion might cause more landslides downstream.
Vice President Lien Chan (
Government spokesman Chen Chien-jen (程建人) said all quake victims living in tents had been evacuated to schools and other shelters.
Meanwhile, a group of 14 legislators set up a cross-party action group for Aborigines (原住民問政會) yesterday and demanded immediate action to help the Aborigines affected by the earthquake. Most of the 42 high-alert danger zones declared after the earthquake are located around aboriginal villages, said legislator Yang Jen-fu (楊仁福), chairperson of the group.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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