SOCIETY
Two struck by lightning
Two lifesaving instructors were reportedly struck by lightning early yesterday during a training session on a beach at Sizihwan in Greater Kaohsiung. The pair were said to be in critical condition. Two other instructors and a trainee who suffered from shock after witnessing the lightning strike were also sent to a nearby hospital, where they were reported to be in stable condition. Kaohsiung Harbor City Water Lifesaving Association president Chen Li-na (陳麗娜) said the association decided to hold a training session that day as scheduled, despite continual rainfall throughout the morning. Thirteen instructors and 23 students were participating in the lesson. The instructors were standing on the beach and assessing whether it was safe for the students to go into the water when the lightning struck, Chen said, adding that the pair who were injured were very experienced and knew the dangers of going into the water during a thunderstorm. The Central Weather Bureau’s Kaohsiung Weather Station said people should not go near the ocean or into the mountains when there is a potential for thunderstorms.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Marines to be on TV
The Republic of China Marine Corps is to be featured this week in a National Geographic Channel program that reports on the rigorous training marines go through. The first of six episodes will be aired on Wednesday, with subsequent episodes every Wednesday over the following weeks, the channel said. The series highlights the rigorous training faced by the Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol Unit at a naval base in Greater Kaohsiung, the Ministry of National Defense said. The program reports stories behind the unit’s arduous 10-week training, which includes crawling over stones and a six-day task that requires trainees to finish a long run, swim in the sea and row at night, the ministry said. National Geographic Channel recently released a preview of the program which can be viewed on the Facebook pages of the channel and the ministry. This was the second cooperative project between the military and National Geographic Channel. The channel produced a documentary on air force exercises that took place in 2011. Titled Inside: Highway, Runway, the film, features the Hankuang 27 Road Runway Exercise that involved using a southern highway as a military airstrip, and was broadcast in October 2011.
ACADEMIA
Math professor honored
A Taiwanese professor was awarded a silver medal, dubbed the Fields Medal of the Chinese-speaking world, in Taipei yesterday, the only mathematician from Taiwan to be recognized this year, according to the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians. Chang Chieh-yu (張介玉), an assistant professor at National Tsing Hua University’s mathematics department, was awarded the medal in the triennial Morningside Medal of Mathematics, which was first awarded in 1998. Chang received his bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees from National Tsing Hua University and did a post-doctorate fellowship at the National Center for Theoretical Sciences and National Central University. He told reporters that the nation’s math field has improved in recent years, but said there is room for improvement. He suggested mathematicians engage in exchanges with foreign talent to find inspiration. The award was established by Chinese-born US mathematician Yau Shing-tung (丘成桐), who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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