■AGRICULTURE
Papaya farmers struggling
A Chiayi County farmers’ association official urged agricultural authorities yesterday to help the county’s papaya farmers cope with losses suffered as result of a tornado and hailstorm that struck Jhongpu Township (中埔) on Thursday. Chang Han-ching (張漢清), a secretary at the Jhongpu Farmers Association, said the tornado and hailstones damaged about 30 hectares of papaya plantations in villages including Jinlan (金蘭), Fushou (復收), Longmen (龍門) and Sanceng (三層), causing millions of dollars in losses. Screen houses were damaged and fruit trees were either snapped in half or toppled over, Chang said. The Jhongpu Township Farmers’ Association would help the farmers apply for government subsidies and expressed hope that agricultural units would also help to offset the farmers’ losses, Chang said.
■CHARITY
Christian group plans to fast
The Taiwan chapter of World Vision, a global Christian charity dedicated to helping poor children and families, will hold a “Hunger 30” drive in Taipei today, in which participants will fast for 12 hours, the organizer said yesterday. First lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) is expected to attend the annual drive, to be held at the National Taiwan University Sports Center, World Vision Taiwan said in a press statement. World Vision Taiwan has been organizing activities to help people experience the pain of hunger and raise their awareness of helping the hungry since March 1, the statement said. The charity has offered assistance to victims of quake-hit Sichuan Province in China and cyclone-ravaged Myanmar.
■TECHNOLOGY
Firms to build electric bikes
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday that the government-financed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) would help domestic manufacturers churn out some 100,000 electric motorcycles in four years. Liu made an inspection tour of the ITRI headquarters in Hsinchu, where he was briefed on the progress in the research and development of various high-tech products, including the environmentally friendly electric motorcycles. He said the government would see to it that some 100,000 electric motorcycles, powered by replaceable batteries, are produced by private motorbike manufacturers around the country in four years amid louder calls for energy-saving and carbon-cutting measures.
■RECREATION
Kinmen park extends hours
The Kinmen National Park Administration said yesterday that it had decided to extend the opening hours at its service centers within the park for the duration of the summer season in response to the needs of visitors. Beginning yesterday, the hours of operation at service centers at the park’s main attractions, including the Jhongshanlin Recreational Area, the Chingkuo Memorial Hall, Cih Lake, the Gunington Battlefield Museum and the Aug. 23 Battle Museum, will be extended from 8am to 5pm to 8am to 5:30pm. The agency said many visitors to the park had complained that because of longer daylight hours and more visitors during the summer, the service centers’ hours of operation were not long enough. The service centers’ hours of operation will return to normal on Sept. 16, it said.
■AGRICULTURE
Farms offer DIY tours
Five leisure farms in Tainan County’s Dongshan Township (東山) yesterday started a month-long pick-it-yourself program organized by the county government. Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said visitors to any of the five orchards need only pay an entrance fee of NT$100 (US$3.20) per person, with children under 110cm admitted free. They can eat as many freshly picked longans as they want before taking an additional 1.8kg of the fruit home at no extra charge.
■AVIATION
CAL fuselage cracks
China Airlines (CAL,華航) said last night that flight CI-160, departing from Taipei to Incheon, South Korea, at 8:08am, was found to have a 15cm crack in the fuselage and two damaged tires after landing at Incheon International Airport at 10:50am. The cause of the crack is still under investigation and could be the result of an unknown object on the runway, a statement issued by CAL said. CAL confirmed that Flight CI-160, carrying 245 passengers and crew, landed safely at Incheon. An A330-300 was immediately sent to Incheon to carry the return Flight CI-161 passengers back to Taipei, the statement said.
■POLITICS
Georgia crisis is a warning
Taiwan should learn a lesson from the ongoing conflict in the Caucasus and beware of a similar situation with China, a Taiwanese political analyst said yesterday. “Georgia’s tragedy is a warning for Taiwan. Georgia sees a Russia, which wants to regain its past power. Taiwan sees a China that has already risen,” said political analyst and former Taipei Times editor-in-chief Antonio Chiang (江春男). “Every now and then, thug leaders pick out a weakling and knock his head against the wall, to remind others who is in charge,” he wrote in an article entitled “A Small but Smart War,” in his column in the Apple Daily. “This time Georgia was hit so hard that it suffered a concussion. The whole world saw this. To [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin, this is a small but smart war. He paid a small price but achieved great results.”
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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