CHARITY
Millions given to Japan
People in Taiwan donated more than NT$540 million (US$17.2 million) for relief aid and post-disaster reconstruction work in western Japan in the wake of the Noto earthquake on Jan. 1, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, three days after a donation program ended. From Jan. 5 to Friday, NT$541,589,468 in 134,368 donations poured into the designated bank account the ministry set up after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocked the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on the first day of this year, the ministry’s Department of Social Assistance and Social Work said. The donation program concluded at 11:59pm on Friday and members of the public would no longer be able to make donations to the account, the ministry added. The donated funds would be transferred to Japan via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the details of the donors would be made public on the health ministry’s Web site.
An NHK report on Monday said that local authorities in Japan have confirmed at least 232 deaths from the disaster, with more than 15,000 people still housed in shelters in Ishikawa Prefecture. As of 2pm on Sunday, the earthquake had caused damage to more than 34,000 houses and buildings, with 49,000 households still without any water supply, NHK said.
ENVIRONMENT
Factory fined for dead fish
The Taoyuan city government said on Sunday that it is to issue a fine after a hydrochloric acid leak at the shuttered Chemours chemical plant in the city’s Guanyin District (觀音) caused mass fish deaths in a public estuary. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement that the case was first brought to light on Friday when residents near Guanyin District reported large numbers of dead fish by the estuary at one end of the Daku River (大堀溪). After conducting an investigation, the department said it realized the fish were killed by hydrochloric acid that had leaked from a cracked pipe at the plant. The failure of those responsible for managing the facility to deal with the leak within three hours constituted a violation of the Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法), which carries a maximum fine of NT$6 million, the department said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
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