A US military officer who fled Vietnam as a boy and was picked up by an American ship will soon visit the country in command of a destroyer, the US Navy has announced.
Born in the Vietnamese city of Hue, Commander Hung Ba Le and his family were picked up at sea in 1975 by a US naval ship in the closing days of the Vietnam war, the Navy said on its Web site.
His family settled in Virginia and he later became a US citizen, graduating in 1992 from the US Naval Academy, before embarking on his climb up the career ladder.
He is due to return to Vietnam in November with his ship, the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen, on a goodwill visit, the Navy said.
“This will be an incredible experience for me personally, to return to the land of my birth for the first time since I was a child,” Le said in the Navy’s report.
“My memories of Vietnam are very few, yet I still feel very drawn to it, to its culture, and to its people,” he said.
It will be Le’s first visit back to Vietnam since he was five years old — when his family joined the wave of refugees fleeing after the fall of Saigon.
Le called the visit “a symbol of the friendship between our two nations.”
The first Vietnamese-American to command a US naval ship, Le in April took over the helm of the USS Lassen, which is part of the US 7th Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan.(AFP)
美國海軍宣佈,一位幼年逃離越南時,被美國船隻救起的美國軍官,不久後將以美軍驅逐艦艦長的身份訪問越南。
美國海軍在其網站上表示,海軍中校黎宏巴(音譯)出生於越南順化市,一九七五年越戰進入尾聲之際,他和他的家人在海上漂流時被一艘美國海軍艦艇救起。
他們家在維吉尼亞州安頓下來,他後來也取得美國公民身份,一九九二年畢業於美國海軍官校,隨後便平步青雲。
海軍表示,他預計於十一月隨導彈驅逐艦「拉森號」重返越南,進行友好訪問。
黎在海軍發佈的新聞中說:「對我個人而言,這將是個難以置信的經驗,自小離開越南後,這是我第一次重回出生地。」
他說:「我對越南的記憶很少,但對越南的文化和人民,我仍心嚮往之。」
這是黎自五歲之後第一次回到越南──當時西貢淪陷,他的家人淪為難民逃難。
黎稱這次訪問是「美越兩國友好的象徵」。
今年四月接掌美軍軍艦拉森號的黎,是首位統率美國海軍戰艦的越南裔美國人;拉森號隸屬於駐守日本橫須賀的美國第七艦隊。(法新社╱翻譯:袁星塵)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110