SEISMICITY
Earthquake jolts Chiayi
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 12:49pm yesterday, according to the Central Weather Bureau. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter of the temblor was in Minxiong Township (民雄), the largest township in Chiayi County, about 14km northeast of Chiayi County Hall, at a depth of 7.7km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Chiayi City, Chiayi County and Yunlin County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 3 in Tainan and 2 in Changhua County, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Man survives cardiac arrest
A Japanese national rescued from an apartment fire in Taipei yesterday was revived by doctors after suffering an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, local police said. The man, 25-year-old television personality Yuta Okubo, is breathing, police said. Firefighters had rescued Okubo from the fifth floor of an apartment building on Tonghe E Street in Shilin District (士林) after responding to an emergency call at about 3am, police said. Okubo was rushed to the hospital after suffering cardiac arrest and was resuscitated by hospital staff, police said. The Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association has been contacted to help inform Okubo’s family in Japan about the incident, police said, adding that the cause of the fire was still being investigated. The fire, which was extinguished at about 3:25am, appears to have started from an air-conditioner unit in one of the rooms on the floor, media reports said.
CRIME
Woman sentenced for life
A woman who caused a fire in a Kaohsiung City building that killed 46 people and injured 41 in 2021 was handed a life sentence by the Kaohsiung Branch of the Taiwan High Court on Wednesday. The court found Huang Ke-ke (黃格格) guilty of homicide after judging that on Oct. 14, 2021, she deliberately left burning residue from mosquito repellent incense on a sofa in her boyfriend’s apartment, in the Cheng Chung Cheng (城中城) building, with the burning ashes sparking a fire that spread through the building. The ruling sentenced Huang to life imprisonment and disenfranchisement for life at about 9am Wednesday through a remote court hearing. There was sufficient evidence to prove that Huang meant to kill people, the court said. The case can be appealed.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS