ECONOMY
M8 buyers loyal to HTC
Taiwan-based HTC Corp’s newest flagship smartphone, the HTC One M8, is mainly attracting loyal HTC users, although it is also drawing some users away from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, according to a UK-based smartphone and gadget trade-in site. The latest survey by CompareMyMobile revealed that 46.2 percent of people upgrading to the M8 traded in their old HTC device, and about the same number of people upgraded from an Apple (23.7 percent) or a Samsung (21.3 percent) device. As for individual products, 13.2 percent of the people who bought the M8 were upgrading from last year’s HTC flagship phone, the HTC One (M7), while 8 percent of them came from Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and 7 percent previously owned an Apple iPhone 5, according to the findings.
CRIME
Turk accused of assault
A Turkish man who was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison by the Taipei District Court earlier this month on charge of attempted rape has been accused of attacking a German student. The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that the Tamkang University student, identified only by his Chinese name, Wang Kai-chieh (王凱傑), was arguing with a female US student and a male German student after a class on Friday after he overheard them saying that Wang’s behavior embarrassed foreign students in Taiwan. A physical conflict followed after Wang tried to grab the German’s smartphone, with which he was filming Wang, the Apple Daily reported, adding that police arrived at the scene after the university reported the case. The German filed an assault suit against Wang for allegedly injuring his forehead and fingers, while Wang reportedly told the police that the German filmed him with a smartphone every time he saw him and accused the man of assault and violating his privacy.
CHARITY
Vietnam water system built
A Taiwan-based charitable organization has constructed a water supply system for a kindergarten in Vietnam as part of its efforts to improve childcare services. The project at the school in Quang Tri Province was launched by the Zhi-Shan Foundation in cooperation with Lin Long-full (林龍富), a professor of environmental engineering at Kun Shan University, to resolve a water shortage there. The foundation has been implementing a childcare program, including building kindergartens, in four impoverished provinces in central Vietnam for 19 years.
DIPLOMACY
Volunteers to help St Lucia
A group of volunteers from the Changhua Christian Hospital has been sent to Saint Lucia to provide medical services to the people there, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The six-member group — four doctors, one nurse and one medical radiology technologist — will be providing services during their visit, from Saturday through May 17, the ministry said, adding that doctors in the group hail from the disciplines of family medicine, cardiology and Chinese medicine. The hospital established a sister institution partnership with Saint Lucia’s Saint Jude Hospital in 2009 and has helped train medical staff for the hospital in the Caribbean country, the ministry said. So far, the Changhua Christian Hospital has dispatched more than 100 volunteers as part of 15 assignments to provide services and help improve medical and public health care in Saint Lucia, it added. Saint Lucia is one of Taiwan’s 22 diplomatic allies.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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
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