WEATHER
Snow falls on Yushan
Snow fell on Taiwan’s tallest mountain, Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山), in Nantou County, amid freezing temperatures early yesterday morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 6am, 5mm of snow had accumulated at the weather station on the highest peak of the mountain, on the northern ridge, at an elevation of 3,952m, the CWA said. It estimated that the snow had fallen on Yushan between midnight and 1am, after which the temperature there dipped to a low of minus-3.1°C at about 2am. On Hehuanshan (合歡山), the heaviest snowfall of this winter season was recorded, the Highway Bureau said. Rime ice and snow pellets fell intermittently from about 8pm on Sunday to early yesterday morning, it said.
Photo courtesy of Huang Tu-feng
HEALTH
Train riders warned
High-speed rail passengers who traveled between Kaohsiung and Taichung late last month in the same train cars with a man diagnosed with measles should contact the Kaohsiung Department of Health, the department said yesterday. It said the Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) on Friday confirmed that the man who traveled on the high-speed rail late last month had been infected with measles. The man traveled from Zuoying to Taichung on Dec. 28 in Car 2 of train No. 160 and went from Taichung to Zuoying on Tuesday last week in Car 4 of train No. 153, it said. The department urged those who traveled in the same cars as the man to contact it at (07)-723-0250 or call the CDC toll-free hotline 1922 as quickly as possible given that measles is highly contagious four days before or after its onset. People who have not been vaccinated or are not immune could be infected with the measles virus within two hours if they were in an enclosed space with an infected person, regardless of duration of exposure, it added.
GUATEMALA
Ambassador visits Lai
Newly appointed Guatemalan Ambassador to Taiwan Luis Raul Estevez Lopez yesterday pledged to enhance 90 years of diplomatic relations, as he presented his credentials to President William Lai (賴清德). Estevez said Taiwan and Guatemala’s long-term friendship is based on shared values of peace-loving, fighting for democracy, a mutually beneficial partnership and respect for international laws. Lai praised Estevez as the perfect man for the position, given the veteran diplomat’s 32 years of experience with Guatemala’s foreign service. Estevez previously served as Guatemala’s representative to the Organization of American States, and to the International Court of Justice, and his appointment as ambassador reflected the high priority Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo has given to his country’s ties with Taiwan, Lai said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
RSS