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.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS