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.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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