TRAFFIC
Emu on the loose
A pet emu was captured while walking along a public thoroughfare without its owner on Yuguang Island (魚光島) off Tainan early on Saturday. It was confirmed that this was the second time the bird escaped from its enclosure in Anping District (安平) over the past two years. The emu was eventually captured by personnel dispatched by the Tainan City Agricultural Bureau after it received reports of the incident from the owner and members of the public, bureau officials said yesterday. The bird was handed to a company contracted by the bureau to care for it after the owner asked for assistance, expressing concern that the bird has escaped twice in two years. Yuguang Borough Warden Lin Ning-feng (林寧峰) said that the owner no longer wants to look after the bird and asked the bureau to find someone willing to house it. Emus are endemic to Australia and are the second-largest land bird after ostriches. With its three-toed legs, the flightless emu can reach a top running speed of 50kph.
Photo courtesy of Takao Nozaki
ARTS
Ko to star on stage
Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) confirmed he is to feature in the musical Dump the Garbage as himself in performances alongside actress Tammy Lai (賴佩霞). Lai was the running mate of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) in January’s presidential election. TPP spokeswoman Wu Yi-hsuan (吳怡萱) on Friday said that Ko accepted the role in the musical after the stage director and Lai invited him to join, adding that party members supported his participation in the production, which centers on the topic of urban renewal. Ko’s condition was that his character must be a relatively accurate reflection of his personality, Wu said. Dump the Garbage has seven performances lined up, with four in Taipei scheduled for next month, one in Kaohsiung in June and two in Taichung in September.
MILITARY
Sergeant declared dead
A sergeant, surnamed Chiang (江), of the Marine Corps 66 Brigade, was declared dead on Friday despite his girlfriend calling the ambulance after finding him unconscious in his car. The Marine Corps Command expressed its regrets in a statement saying Chiang died from “committing self-harm” on his day off. It would provide surviving family members with assistance, it said, adding that an investigation is being launched. The statement added that the command would continue efforts to raise awareness of stress, encourage a positive attitude, and encourage people to cherish their lives. In other news, the Military Police Command has denied claims that its service personnel, especially on shift at the Presidential Office, were overworked. The denial was in response to medical reports that an armed military guard at the Presidential Office, surnamed Ku (古), committed suicide while at his post earlier this month because of overwork, working for two hours and resting for two hours before reporting for duty again. The command said it is investigating measures to reduce workloads and ensure respect of individual rights.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
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