ENTERTAINMENT
Hu Ting-ting announces split
British-born Taiwanese actress Hu Ting-ting (胡婷婷), the daughter of Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), announced yesterday that she has separated from her husband, Julio Acconci, after a year of marriage. “It was a very peaceful decision made by both sides... we are still good friends,” Hu Ting-ting wrote on Facebook. She did not give a reason for the breakup, saying only that “it was love that brought us together. It was also because of love that we decided to part ways.” Hu Ting-ting, who made her acting debut as a Thai prostitute in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, married Acconci in January last year. At a press conference yesterday, her father choked up with emotion as he said that he was “shocked” and very sad to hear the news, but that the most important thing for him now was to help his daughter through this difficult time.
ENTERTAINMENT
Hsu sets marriage date
Taiwanese singer-actress Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄) is to marry her Singaporean businessman fiance Sean Lee in June, her management company said. The couple held an engagement party on Saturday in Taipei. While the 38-year-old model, singer and actress enjoys popularity in her home country and Japan, she plans to settle down in Singapore after her marriage, but will continue her career in the entertainment business if there are good opportunities, the company said. Lee is chief executive officer of Marco Polo Marine, a Singapore-based integrated marine logistics group. Hsu was once a member of the popular Japanese group Black Biscuits and has also appeared in a number of films and television series in both Taiwan and Japan, including The Shoe Fairy (人魚朵朵) and The Knot (雲水謠).
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do