ENTERTAINMENT
Pan An-pang passes away
Taiwanese singer Pan An-pang (潘安邦), known for his song Grandma’s Penghu Bay (外婆的澎湖灣), died on Sunday of kidney cancer at the age of 51. Pan, who was born in Penghu, began his singing career in 1979. Pan’s hit songs include Country Road (鄉間的小路), Sunshine and Rain (光和小雨) and Errant Love (聚散倆依依). Pan was also well-known in China and once performed Grandma’s Penghu Bay at China Central Television’s New Year’s Gala. He is survived by his wife and son.
DIPLOMACY
US charity praises Taiwan
Food for the Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the US, on Saturday praised Taiwan for its efforts to provide foreign aid. At a fundraiser held in Florida to mark the organization’s 31st anniversary, Food for the Poor president and chief executive officer Robin Mahfood praised the nation for its participation in a program to supply rice and provide technical agricultural assistance to Haiti. Mahfood also expressed his appreciation to Taiwan’s representative office in Miami for supporting fundraising events over the past three years to help with Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction. Mahfood later presented a citation to Mou Hua-wei (牟華偉), director of the Miami office, in honor of his work in promoting humanitarian diplomacy. The government has engaged in several projects with Food for the Poor in Central America in recent years, including promoting computer education and aquaculture and providing emergency food supplies. During a visit to Haiti in August 2010, first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) joined Mahfood in distributing rice to victims of the earthquake.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
RSS