SOCIETY
Trekker returns home alone
A Taiwanese trekker who went missing for 47 days in the Himalayas and saw his girlfriend die there returned to Taiwan yesterday after recovering in a hospital in Nepal. Liang Sheng-yue (梁聖岳) appeared weak and tired on arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and did not respond to reporters’ questions. The 21-year-old and his girlfriend, Liu Chen-chun (劉宸君), 18, arrived in Nepal from India in late February and began their trek in early March. According to Liang, the couple encountered heavy snow on the third day of their journey and they fell off a cliff while trying to get down the mountain to find shelter. They stayed in a cave to wait for assistance. However, their food only lasted for two weeks, after which they had only salt and water. Liu died three days before Liang was found on Wednesday last week by a team of experienced rescuers, who spotted vultures circling above the cave where the couple took refuge.
LABOR
Security guards to get older
A legislative committee on Monday approved a draft amendment that would allow security providers to hire guards up to the age of 70. The proposal, passed by the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, also retained a clause requiring private security guards and other security personnel to be at least 20. The existing law does not allow private security guards to work beyond 65. Committee convener William Tseng (曾銘宗) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had proposed that those aged 18 to 70 be able to work as security guards, but KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) said it would not be safe to have teenagers working as security guards in residential and office buildings or at construction sites. Huang’s concerns were accepted.
ENTERTAINMENT
Britney Spears to play gig
US pop singer Britney Spears, who rose to international stardom in the late 1990s and has sold about 100 million records worldwide, is to hold her first-ever concert in Taiwan next month, a promoter said. The concert “Britney Live in Taipei 2017” is to take place at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center on June 13, with tickets to go on sale on Saturday next week, IMEtw announced yesterday. Seated tickets are to cost NT$2,680 to NT$7,680 and standing tickets are to cost NT$1,680, the promoter said. In a career spanning almost two decades, the 35-year-old has released nine studio albums.
SOCIETY
Marathon club charged
The owner and an employee of a marathon club have been indicted on charges of falsifying documents to bring Kenyan runners into the nation, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said on Monday. The club was involved in falsifying invitation letters from a well-established sportswear brand so that the Kenyans could successfully apply for Taiwanese visas, Tainan Chief Prosecutor Chen Chien-hung (陳建弘) said. The club owner and the employee, identified only as Lin (林) and Lu (盧), were found to have invited more than 10 Kenyan athletes to Taiwan between December 2015 and August last year to compete in marathons. Acting on tips provided by the National Immigration Agency, police raided the club and found evidence of falsified documents and account books. The two would also take a cut from the Kenyan runners’ winnings in the races, and they profited by NT$600,000 (US$19,959) from a total of NT$6 million to NT$7 million in prize money during this period, prosecutors alleged.
AGENCIES
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
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