Two Taipei City police officers slashed by homeless man who refused to wear mask

One police officer was cut on his neck, and another on his hand, after a homeless man reported for not wearing a mask attacked them with a machete at Taipei Main Station today, May 22. Police from the Zhongxiao West Road police station went to the south gate of the station plaza after a member of the public reported that a man was loitering near the station entrance without wearing a surgical mask at around 5:00 pm. The two police

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Concerned citizen calls 119 on sunbathing woman

A woman sunbathing outside a sports stadium in New Taipei City was apparently misidentified as an accident victim, after a concerned member of the public witnessed her lying in the sun while not wearing a surgical mask yesterday, May 20. The New Taipei City Fire Department received a report at 8:00 am that a woman was lying on the ground and not wearing a mask on the terraced steps outside the Xinzhuang Gymnasium. Paramedics rushed to the scene dressed in

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Economics professor takes to Twitch to lecture 54 students, gains an audience of 17,000

As teachers from elementary school up turned to online media platforms to reach their students after classes were suspended this week, a professor of economics chose to deliver a lecture for his 54 students yesterday, May 19, and inadvertently managed to gain an audience of 17,000. The sudden announcement of school closures, and a switch to online classes starting with the Greater Taipei Region, Monday, and extended nationwide, Tuesday, left many teachers a little confused as to what platform to

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Chinese captain of Taiwanese fishing vessel who ordered shipwrecked pirates killed loses appeal

A Chinese national sentenced to a 26-year prison term for ordering four Somali pirates from a capsized vessel shot dead lost an appeal to the High Court yesterday, May 18. Wang Fengyu (汪峰裕), 43, was convicted of homicide by the Kaohsiung District Court January 29, 2021, for ordering the killings while serving as captain of the Kaohsiung-registered longliner Ping Shin No. 101 while it was operating in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia, September 29, 2012. According to

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HSR, TRA to reduce train services during epidemic alert period as passenger numbers plummet

Taiwan’s High Speed Rail passenger numbers are down more than 71%, and Taiwan Railways passenger demand is down more than 65% as the nation goes into Level 3 epidemic alert, and train services will be reduced in response, HSR announced yesterday, and TRA announced today, May 19. HSR said that it would run 171 fewer services per week from May 21 to June 10, after daily passenger volume fell 71.08% over the daily average for March this year. TRA passenger

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Taipei City Mayor accidentally flips the bird during live broadcast

Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je appeared to be giving someone the finger during a live broadcast today, May 18, but it turns out that he was just trying to make a point. Mayor Ko said that there was good news amidst bad today, noting that the percentage of positive results at rapid testing stations in the city had fallen from 11% on the first day, to 4.7% today. Ko explained that on the first day of rapid testing, May 14,

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Laptop sales surge, education department website crashes after nationwide school closure announced

Schools across Taiwan will be closed from tomorrow May 19 until May 28, the Ministry of Education announced today, leading to the MOE website crashing as concerned parents and students flooded onto the site seeking more information. The MOE made the decision a day after schools in Taipei City and New Taipei City announced city-wide school closures from today, May 18. Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung announced that all schools, including public and private kindergartens, elementary, junior and senior high

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Taiwan faces rolling power outages again today, May 17

Taipower informed consumers via a text message alert at 8:10 pm this evening that there was insufficient power in the national grid and areas will face rolling power outages from 8:50 pm. The insufficient supply is reported to have happened due to a coal-fired power unit at the Xingda (Hsinta) power plant being shut down at 12:54 pm due to a combustion management system module failure. Although the fault was repaired, and the power unit was restarted at 2:29 pm,

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Convenience store clerk beaten up by customer who refused to comply with epidemic control measures

A convenience store clerk in New Taipei City was sent to hospital after being beaten up by a man who refused to comply with the requirement to wear a mask and register his name and phone number when visiting the store, today, May 17. At around 7:00 am this morning a 50-year-old man, named Lai, entered a High Life convenience store in Tucheng District, without wearing a surgical mask. A 22-year-old clerk named Zhuo requested he put on a mask

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2 men killed in high-speed single-vehicle crash in Taichung City

Two men were cut out of the mangled wreck of a vehicle without vital signs and were later declared dead at the hospital, after a single vehicle accident in Taichung City this afternoon, Sunday, May 16. The 43-year-old driver, named Wu, is suspected to have lost control of his vehicle at high speed while negotiating a curve on Dafeng Road, in Dali District, slamming into a tree on the central traffic separator. The Toyota SUV was left wrapped around the

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Firefighters airlifted to central mountains, hike 5 hours to fight forest fire

A team of firefighters was flown to a landing point in a remote area of Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range, and faced a further 5-hour hike to reach a fire on Dashuiku Mountain today, May 16. Chiayi Forest Management Office dispatched the team after a fire was reported at around 4:00 am this morning from the Yushan (Mt Jade) Weather Station. As it would normally take three days to hike to the remote location, it was decided to dispatch a helicopter

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