CRIME
Homeless man attacked
New Taipei City police said they were investigating after a homeless man was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant as he slept in a park in the city’s Shulin District (樹林) on Monday night. The 64-year-old man, surnamed Chang (張), was sleeping in a park pavilion on Shulin’s Shuiyuan Street when he was awoken at about 11pm by a man who slashed him multiple times with a knife before fleeing. After the attack, Chang went to a nearby sink to clean his wounds and then went back to sleep in the pavilion, where a passersby later reported him to the police due to the large quantities of blood at the scene. Chang was taken to the Tucheng branch of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital to be treated for slash wounds on his body and hands, and a severed left index finger, which was later found near the pavilion, police said. Chang was believed to have consumed alcohol before going to sleep, resulting in a diminished awareness of pain and did not know who attacked him. Investigators are reviewing surveillance camera footage to try and identify the suspect in the attack, police added.
CRIME
Mother, boyfriend detained
The Taitung District Court on Monday granted a request by prosecutors to detain a single mother and her live-in boyfriend suspected of attempted murder, after the woman’s 11-month-old daughter died from alleged child abuse. The toddler was unconscious when she was rushed to hospital on Oct. 8. Doctors found that she had multiple physical injuries, including to the head, a Taitung District Prosecutors’ Office statement said. After efforts to resuscitate her failed, she was pronounced dead on Saturday by the hospital, which immediately alerted the police and the Taitung Social Affairs Department of the matter, prosecutors said. The daughter was one of a pair of twins born to the 28-year-old mother, police said. The woman has had three failed marriages and a follow-up investigation also revealed that the twin son also had bruises on him, indicating alleged child abuse, police said. Besides the twins, the mother also has another child from a previous marriage and lives with her boyfriend, identified only by his surname Kao (高). During questioning, police said the couple’s answers were inconsistent with their statements and prosecutors who reviewed the case later filed a request with the court to have them detained over suspicion of attempted murder.
EDUCATION
Ten injured in collapse
Ten girls at Donghu Elementary School in Taipei on Monday sustained minor injuries after portable bleachers on which they were performing collapsed under their feet. The girls, who were part of a choir made up of 40 students, fell from heights ranging from 60cm to 120cm when the portable bleachers collapsed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the 10 girls were sent to hospitals immediately for treatment and observation. The girls were sent to Taipei City Hospital Zhongxiao Branch and Tri-Service General Hospital. Fan I-more (方怡謨), deputy superintendent of Taipei City Hospital Zhongxiao Branch, said all six girls sent to that hospital were calm after sustaining minor injuries, such as sprains and abrasions, and they were discharged an hour after arriving. Tri-Service General Hospital said in a statement that the four girls it admitted had bruises and abrasions, and had been released. The bleachers that collapsed were purchased about four to five years ago, school principal Hsiu Chin-chu (修金莒) said. Hsiu said that the bleachers collapsed because the weight of the 40 students was unequally distributed.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its