Mon, Nov 27, 2023 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  SOCIETY

  Pufferfish kills man

  One person has died and eight were poisoned after consuming poisonous pufferfish — known in Japanese as fugu — in Nantou County on Saturday night, local authorities said. The poisoning occurred after a restaurant owner, surnamed Hung (洪), in the mountain town of Cinjing (清境) invited eight neighbors to a meal at his home that included pufferfish, Nantou County police said yesterday. The following morning, one of the guests, surnamed Yang (楊), noticed a numbing sensation in his mouth, hands and feet, and decided to go to Hung’s house to check on him, and after Hung failed to answer the door, Yang entered the house to find him lying on the ground without vital signs and called for an ambulance, police said. Hung was later pronounced dead, while the eight guests at the dinner were taken to hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening symptoms, police said. They had asked prosecutors to take samples of the fish for testing, the police said.

  DIPLOMACY

  Ukranian mayor visits

  The Mayor of Bucha in northern Ukraine Anatoliy Fedoruk arrived in Taiwan with a delegation on Saturday, with the aim of attracting investment in construction projects planned by the city, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. After Moscow launched an invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Russian forces occupied Bucha for nearly a month, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, according to international media reports. During the delegation’s four-day trip, its members are to visit Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI), Taiwan External Trade Development Council and the Taipei Computer Association. The government has worked closely with the Bucha City Government in recent years, including providing a donation of US$600,000 for the construction of an air-raid shelter and a children’s school in August, the ministry said. Taiwan also helped Bucha renovate 11 shelters, one kindergarten and nine houses in April last year, it added.

  TRAFFIC

  Smart inspection to start

  Starting from March next year, the Highway Bureau is to employ smart road-inspection vehicles to collect data on the condition of the roads of Taiwan to facilitate timely repairs and more efficient road upkeep. The vehicles would be equipped with panoramic cameras, light detection and ranging systems and other instruments to automatically detect problems with roads such as potholes, and wear and tear, the bureau said. Artificial intelligence (AI) would then be employed to analyze the raw data, enabling maintenance units to better grasp the situation and determine whether issues require immediate attention, so repairs can be tackled quickly, it said.

  CRIME

  Ticket scalpers arrested

  Police have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of scalping tickets to the 30th BFA Asian Baseball Championship opener between Taiwan and South Korea at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. As of yesterday, a total of 23 people have been arrested on suspicion of violating the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), Taipei police said, adding that the suspects are mostly ordinary people, rather than professional ticket scalpers. A field-level seat ticket for Sunday’s game is priced at NT$600 on the ticketing platform tixCraft. The 13,000 tickets available for the game sold out minutes after going on sale at 12pm on Friday.
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