BUSINESS
Lin heads delegation to US
Taiwan is sending a delegation to the US today that it hopes will secure investment commitments from a number of US companies. The delegation, headed by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠), expects to sign letters of intent with representatives from a dozen US companies in the fields of green energy, cloud computing, semiconductors, optoelectronics and biotechnology. During the eight-day trip, the delegation will meet with Noveda Technologies, Air Products and Chemicals, Veeco Instruments, Celgene, A10 Networks, Lam Research and others in Silicon Valley, San Diego, New York and elsewhere in the US. The Ministry of Economic Affairs expected some of these companies to introduce their technologies to Taiwan or set up research and development centers in the nation, he said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Selina suffers burn injuries
Singer Selina (任家萱) of the popular Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. suffered burn wounds in Shanghai on Friday while shooting the film I Have a Date with Spring (我與春天有個約會) for Hunan TV. Record company HIM planning supervisor Shih Jen-cheng (施人誠) said on her blog yesterday that Selina had suffered third degree burns on her back, arms and legs and requires skin grafts. Shih also said Selina’s family and the hospital were currently discussing the possibility of returning her to Taiwan and that they had already applied for an emergency aircraft. Shih said that the accident occurred at about 4pm on Friday while filming a scene that involved explosions. Lead male actor Yu Haoming (俞灝明) also sustained severe burn wounds in the same accident.
AVIATION
Accident due to pilot error
An accident involving a China Airlines (CAL) flight destined for the Indonesian island of Bali on Sept. 20, 2008, that injured 24 passengers and cabin crew was caused by pilot error, according to an investigative report released on Friday by the Aviation Safety Council (ASC). The report said the two pilots of flight CI-687 were found responsible for flying the Boeing 747-400 plane into strong turbulence over the South China Sea after misreading the plane’s radar. The cabin chief and one passenger sustained serious injuries in the incident and three other cabin crew and 19 passengers were slightly injured. The ASC also concluded in the report that the Civil Aeronautics Administration should reinforce its checks on the cabin operations of all local airlines after finding that the CAL’s cabin crew guide lacks clearly defined rules for handling turbulence. The ASC is an independent government agency established to investigate and prevent the re-occurrence of civilian air incidents and accidents.
POLITICS
Foreign minister in Africa
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) departed Taipei on Friday night for a diplomatic trip that will take him to Burkina Faso and Sao Tome and Principe in a bid to evaluate the country’s diplomatic performance in Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Yang will meet leaders of the two countries, which both maintain formal ties with Taiwan, and inspect Taiwanese technical and medical missions there, the ministry said. During his stay in Sao Tome, capital of Sao Tome and Principe, Yang will preside over a meeting on Friday that will bring together senior officials from all of Taiwan’s embassies and representative offices in Africa to review cooperative projects and chart a new regional diplomatic working agenda, the ministry said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching