SPORTS
Kevin Lin recovering
Endurance runner Kevin Lin (林義傑), who has been running the length of the ancient Silk Road since April, has almost recovered from suspected food poisoning after receiving medical attention in Iran, expedition organizers said yesterday. “Lin is now stable,” said a spokesman for The Home Expedition, the Taipei-based organization that organizes the historic Running the Silk Road program as part of its efforts to promote global sustainability. Because the team leader felt that Lin and two other runners needed more rest, they did not start their daily run at 6am as scheduled, the spokesman said, adding that all the runners were resting and recuperating. Local media reports said Lin and his two teammates — Bai Bin (白斌) and Chen Jun (陳軍) of China — fell ill the previous day when they were running through an Iranian village about 250km east of the Caspian Sea. An investigation into the cause of the food poisoning is ongoing.
LEISURE
Roller coaster stuck again
A roller-coaster ride in the E-Da Theme Park in Greater Kaohsiung broke down on Monday afternoon, leaving 24 riders stranded in mid-air for 10 minutes, a park official said. No injuries were reported, said a spokesman for E-United Group, the theme park’s parent company. A coin carried by one of the riders fell onto the track and sensors recording the presence of a foreign object immediately shut the ride down, but the problem was resolved after a technician removed the coin, the spokesman said. Images of the breakdown on cable TV news showed a car that was going up and down the halfpipe-shaped ride getting stuck about halfway up. The apex of the ride is 60m above ground. People trapped on the ride were treated to a free afternoon tea and also had their admission fees refunded as compensation, the spokesman said.
CHARITY
Ex-Singapore minister visits
Former Singaporean foreign minister George Yeo (楊榮文) left for Taiwan on Monday for a private visit to the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, Taiwan’s largest charity organization. Yeo will visit the Hualien-based charity to offer his gratitude and thanks in person to the Tzu Chi Stem Cell Center for saving the life of his son, a leukemia patient, by helping him get a bone marrow transplant, Yeo said on his Facebook page before leaving Singapore. Singapore media have been speculating that Yeo will throw his hat into the ring for the city state’s next presidential election. Yeo’s supporters have been urging him to run since he resigned as foreign minister after losing in Singapore’s general election on May 8.
CULTURE
Taipei choir bags gold award
The Taipei Male Choir took a gold award on Sunday in the Harmonie Festival, one of the world’s largest music festivals, which is held every six years in Limburg, Germany. It was the first time the Taipei Male Choir, founded in 1994, had competed in the Harmonie Festival for singing and music performance for young mixed choirs, female choirs, male choirs, folksong choirs and dance groups. Six groups from the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Taiwan were in the running for the male choir competition. The choir of the University of Louisville in the US also won a gold award, while Sweden’s Stockholm Musikgymnasium took silver. Taipei Male Choir conductor Nieh Yen-hsiang (聶焱庠) said the chorus was composed of college students, as well as young and middle-aged people who have regular jobs.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
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