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.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
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