SOCIETY
Elevator safety to be tested
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday said that he would order a third-party review of two incidents last week in which city government-operated elevators malfunctioned after undergoing maintenance. The first of the incidents occurred on Tuesday last week, when the cable of an elevator at the New Taipei City Funeral Parlor snapped, causing it to drop from the building’s second floor, injuring three workers inside. The second incident occurred on Sunday when a pedestrian overpass elevator near New Taipei City Hall Square malfunctioned and fell from the second floor. A woman in the elevator broke her foot, while her eight-year-old nephew was treated for lacerations. Hou said safety inspections would be conducted on all elevators operated by the city government within the next two months. The city government would also cover the medical expenses of those hurt in the accidents and help them seek financial compensation once legal responsibility for the failures has been determined, he added.
MILITARY
Air drills postponed
The air force’s annual Tien Lung, or “Sky Dragon,” aerial exercises that were originally scheduled to begin yesterday and last five days have been postponed to next month due to poor weather conditions. The drills aimed at testing pilots’ air-to-air, air-to-sea and air-to-ground combat skills in the air force’s backbone fighters — F-16Vs, Mirage 2000-5s and Indigenous Defense Fighters — are rescheduled to Monday next week to Friday, a military source said.
CRIME
Taichung driver detained
The Taichung District Court yesterday approved the detention of an 18-year-old unlicensed driver who police suspect was driving under the influence of drugs in an alleged hit-and-run incident on Sunday morning that left one person dead. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a call at 9:05am reporting that somebody had been struck by a vehicle in the city’s Beitun District (北屯). Emergency personnel arrived at the scene to find a male, aged about 60, in a state of cardiac arrest. Efforts to save him failed and he was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The driver allegedly fled the scene of the incident and was arrested about 15 minutes later after he crashed his car into a power distribution box, police said. The driver, surnamed Pai (白), told the police he was not aware that he had hit a man. He did not have a driver’s license, but was driving a BMW sedan which he said had been rented by a family member, the police said. Pai initially passed a breath alcohol test, but during questioning admitted to taking ketamine the day before, the police said.
FOOD SAFETY
Mushrooms to be destroyed
A batch of mushrooms imported from China was among foods that were recently ordered to be destroyed for containing excessive levels of heavy metal, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The imported mushroom samples were among 224 products picked for testing across Taiwan from July to last month and were found to contain an average of 7mg of cadmium per kilogram, more than the threshold of 2mg per kilogram. The agency said the mushroom sample collected was sold at local hot pot chain Top One Pot’s Tainan branch, which was instructed to remove the product from its menu. The mushrooms from the same batch were ordered to be destroyed, it said.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.
‘CHINESE BLOCKADE’: Preparations include securing rice stockpiles and fish feed inventories, and storing food across the nation to lower attack risks The government yesterday offered rare details of its wartime food plan, saying it is taking monthly inventories of crucial supplies such as rice and making sure they are properly stored across the nation in case of a Chinese blockade. China has over the past five years staged almost daily military activities around Taiwan, including war games that have practiced blockades and attacks on ports. China’s latest war games around Taiwan, carried out last week, included mock blockades of key ports and areas, and assaults of maritime and ground targets, Beijing said. In a report to the Legislative Yuan about preparations in case of
Tickets to pop star Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) Taipei Dome concerts in December sold out within five minutes this afternoon for all four shows. The pop star is holding concerts for his Carnival World Tour at the new arena from Dec. 5 to 8, the first time he is to perform in Taiwan in years. Tickets went on sale at noon today on the tixCraft Web site for the event, set to be the largest indoor solo concert ever held in Taiwan. A total of 890,583 users visited the site at once to purchase a total of 150,000 tickets, JVR Music said. All