WEATHER
WRA starts cloud seeding
The Water Resources Agency (WRA) turned to seeding clouds to boost reserves at Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) yesterday morning, the WRA’s Northern Region Water Resources Office said. The office said it launched the cloud-seeding operation at 7:10am as it noticed a cloud system approaching Taiwan, and that the operation is expected to increase the chance of rainfall by 10 percent. As of 11am yesterday, the Shihmen Reservoir, which mainly supplies water for northern Taiwan, was at 29.34 percent of capacity, branch data showed. The branch said the cloud system is forecast to bring rain from yesterday to tomorrow, adding that it hopes water reserves can rebound with rain brought by the system.
LITERATURE
Chi Pang-yuan dies
Academic, educator and writer Chi Pang-yuan (齊邦媛), who was instrumental in introducing Taiwanese literature to the Western world through her translations, has died at the age of 100. Wenhsun Magazine president Feng Te-ping (封德屏) said on Friday that Chi’s death was confirmed by friends who were familiar with the retirement home where she resided. Chi was known for her autobiography The Great Flowing River (巨流河), which recounts the ups and downs of her eventful life in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and then her relocation to Taiwan. Born in China’s Liaoning Province, she graduated from Wuhan University with a degree in English studies. In 1947, she relocated to Taiwan and further her education at Indiana University in the US in 1968. She later returned to Taiwan to become director of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Chung Hsing University. Chi also worked for the National Institute for Compilation and Translation, where she initiated the translation of Chinese literature to English, included the publication of An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Literature” (中國現代文學選集). She retired as professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at National Taiwan University in 1988. The Ministry of Culture yesterday issued a statement describing Chi as a pioneer in promoting literary criticism and translation in Taiwan.
POLICE
Bullet casings found
New Taipei City Police officers have been reprimanded for leaving a box of bullet casings inside the basket of a YouBike. The incident was first brought to the attention of authorities on March 20 when a member of the public, surnamed Shih (石), found a box from Czech ammunition company Sellier & Bellot sitting inside the basket of a YouBike parked near Linkou Police Precinct, a spokesperson for the city’s Zhonghe Precinct said. The box contained 1,200 empty handgun bullet casings and were used on March 20 by precinct officers at a firing range in the city’s Linkou District (林口) during a routine training exercise, the precinct said. After the drill was completed at around 4pm the same day, equipment and depleted casings were collected and accounted for by supervisors who oversaw the exercise and their assistants. However, a box was left inside the basket of a YouBike, it said, calling it an instance of gross negligence. Those responsible for the casings have been issued with reprimands, it said. It will also initiate stricter officer training and education to ensure that in the future equipment and emptied casings are all checked, rechecked and returned after exercises, the precinct said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
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