■ Society
Bear severely injures child
A three-year-old boy was critically injured yesterday after a caged circus bear nearly ripped off his arm in southern Taiwan, a hospital official said. Doctors performed emergency surgery to reattach the right arm of the boy, who was found lying in a pool of blood by the bear's cage on a farm where a circus from Vietnam was performing, an official from Chi Mei Hospital said. Farm staff said the boy, who went to see the bear perform stunts like riding a bicycle, might have provoked the animal by trying to pat it. The incident occurred while his mother was talking to performers. The performance was suspended after the attack. The boy's parents blamed the farm owners for the attack for failing to put up warning signs in front of the bear's cage, local newspapers said.
■ Society
Book on sex slaves launched
Taiwan's first book about "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops in World War II, was launched earlier this week. The book, titled Silent Scars: History of Sexual Slavery by the Japanese Military, includes more than 200 photos featuring the women, the Japanese brothels in which they were imprisoned and articles about the feelings of these women. According to statistics, some 20,000 women were used as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II, most of whom came from China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines and other Asian countries. Some 2,000 came from Taiwan. The Japanese government has consistently refused to apologize to the "comfort women."
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Teen hero gets cash award
A courageous 13-year old junior-high school student, surnamed Lee, was awarded NT$20,000 by the Chiayi Police Bureau yesterday in recognition of his bravery in foiling a bank robbery a day earlier. Lee saw the would-be bank robber enter the Talin branch of Chiayi Fourth Credit Cooperative as he was passing by the bank on Monday afternoon. He grabbed the suspect around the neck and then several tellers helped overpowered the man. The robber had been armed with a home-made handgun. Chiayi Mayor Chen Li-chen (陳麗貞) and Police Commissioner Chen Kuo-en (陳國恩) held a citation ceremony for Lee at his school yesterday morning and presented him with the cash award. Lee's classmates expressed admiration for his bravery and quick thinking, calling him a hero. Lee also won praise from his father, although his mother suggested that he should not put his own safety at risk again if faced with a similar situation in the future.
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Doctors celebrate `rebirth'
Doctors at Kaohsiung's Veterans General Hospital joined the family of a man yesterday to celebrate his "rebirth" from a near-fatal traffic accident in which his heart was ruptured and stopped. Over a month ago, Chien Chao-yi (簡朝益) was sent to the emergency unit of the hospital after a serious motorcycle accident. When he reached the hospital, doctors found that his breathing and heart had stopped. The doctors diagnosed a ruptured heart and opened the patient's chest without anaesthetic and without obtaining permission from his family to do the operation. Ye Wen-bin (葉文彬), a surgeon, said he and his colleagues felt they had time to save Chien's life, so they proceeded with the surgery, while Chang Hung-tai (張宏泰), who was one of the surgical team, said the survival rate for similar cases is less than 2 percent.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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