Society

Taiwan's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the life sentence given to a man found guilty of robbing and killing a retired female teacher in the southern city of Kaohsiung nearly a decade ago.

A total of seven people were confirmed as having died as the result of a fire that broke out in a hospital in Pingtung, southern Taiwan, with one other death being designated not caused by the fire and another pending an autopsy result, the Pingtung District Prosecutors Office said Friday.

Four individuals have been arrested in separate drug busts involving the substance etomidate, Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Friday as it summarized its efforts in combating the narcotic, known as the "zombie drug."

Heavy winds and rain brought by the storm that had been Typhoon Krathon had caused two deaths, injured 667 and left one person unaccounted for as of 8 a.m. Friday, according to the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC).

At least a dozen vehicles belonging to an incineration plant in Keelung City were damaged after the area where they were parked collapsed due to a landslide Thursday night, according to the Keelung City Bureau of Environmental Protection.

Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) has further downgraded the classification of the storm that had been Typhoon Krathon and lifted both sea and land typhoon warnings.

Taiwan's topography resulted in Typhoon Krathon rapidly weakening and eventually dissipating in the air over Taiwan after it made landfall in southern Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said Friday.

The lead stories in major Taiwan dailies on Friday are as follows:

Taiwan's Central Weather Administration (CWA) has lifted its sea and land typhoon warnings after Tropical Storm Krathon was downgraded to a tropical depression.

Work and classes will resume across Taiwan and its outlying islands on Friday, except in Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, and some parts of Hualien County and New Taipei, according to the local governments.