LABOR
Filipino dies after van flips
A worker from the Philippines who had overstayed his visa was killed yesterday when a National Immigration Agency van in which he and four other overstaying Filipino workers and four immigration officials were riding overturned on the way to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Another Filipino and two immigration officials were injured in the accident, freeway police said. The vehicle overturned on National Freeway No. 3, possibly because of a flat tire, police said. The van was on its way to the airport as the five Filipinos were to be deported for overstaying their visas, immigration officials said. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital, where one was pronounced dead on arrival. The accident took place on the Houlung section of the freeway.
TRAVEL
Bali tops destination list
Bali is the most popular tourist destination among single men and women in the nation, according to a list of the most-searched travel spots recently compiled and released by Yahoo Taiwan. Kyoto came in second place, followed by Paris, the Gold Coast in Australia and Bangkok, gauged by the number of views of Web pages or searches on certain destinations on the portal. Rounding out the top 10 were Prague, Rome, New York, Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro, according to Yahoo Taiwan. The company said clicks on articles about romantic encounters during foreign travel were 25 percent higher than for other travel articles. Travel articles draw about 250,000 visits daily, it said. Yahoo said this points to possible business opportunities in the tourism, leisure and social networking sectors offered by catering to singles. The number of single women aged 30 to 39 in the nation topped 610,000 last year, it added, citing Ministry of the Interior statistics.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
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