CRIME
Woman sentenced over fire
A Kaohsiung woman has been sentenced to 30 days in prison, commutable to a fine, for offenses against public safety stemming from a kitchen fire after her pet cat turned on an induction stove. The 24-year-old defendant, surnamed Chen (陳), and her 27-year-old roommate, surnamed Hung (洪), traveled to northern Taiwan on Jan. 6 last year, leaving their four cats in their apartment, the Kaohsiung District Court said. The verdict can be appealed. On Jan. 8 last year, a fire started in the apartment, burning an area around the stove before triggering the building’s sprinkler system, which extinguished the blaze, it said. The Kaohsiung Fire Department said in a report that one of the cats had started the fire, likely by pushing an iron wire mesh from the counter onto the range, and then touching the stove’s power button, turning it on. The wire, heated by the stove, ignited other items on the counter, it said. The court said that Chen’s negligence had made it possible for the fire to start, endangering other residents of the building. If it had not been for the sprinklers, there could have been extensive damage, and even injuries or deaths, it said. Hung, who was also indicted, is being tried separately.
WEATHER
Reservoirs get rain boost
The catchment area of Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫) in Chiayi County’s Dapu Township (大埔) yesterday had the greatest single day of rainfall in 260 days, easing concerns of a water shortage. As of noon, 125mm of rain had fallen upstream of the reservoir, the Water Resources Agency’s southern branch said. The last time the area saw more than 100mm of rain in a single day was on Sept. 10 last year, it said. Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) in Tainan’s Guantian District (官田) and Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) in the city’s Nanhua District had 72mm and 125mm respectively fall in their catchment areas, it said. Water levels in the Zengwen-Wushantou system had reached 34.93 percent, while the Nanhua Reservoir had reached 28.89 percent, rising slightly from the day before, it added. Meanwhile, the Central Weather Administration said that Typhoon Ewiniar, the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season this year, was 640km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, at 2am yesterday. The storm was moving northeast and was expected to pass east of the Ryukyu Islands and head toward waters southeast of Japan, it said. While it should not directly affect Taiwan’s weather, there is a chance of swells along the Keelung coast, the east coast, Hengchun Peninsula, Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) today, it said.
SOCIETY
Taichung distillery honored
A Taichung distillery was given Double Gold and Gold awards for its products at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the Taichung City Government said in a statement yesterday. ABAS Distillery Story Hall won Double Gold for its ABAS Original Aged Liquor and a gold for its ABAS 53 percent Aged Liquor, the statement said. The distillery, which was in the competition for the first time, was up against more than 5,500 entries, it said. The distillery was founded in 2003, rebranded as ABAS in 2020 and established its “Distillery Story Hall” in 2022. Double Gold is awarded to entries that receive unanimous gold ratings from the judging panel. Gold is awarded to “exceptional spirits that are near the pinnacle of achievement,” the competition’s Web site says.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
RSS