Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, one of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners, on Friday said he loves Taiwan and its people, citing the hundreds of young Taiwanese who volunteer to help him in his fight for children’s rights.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday said it had selected Satyarthi and Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai as the recipients of this year’s honor.
After learning that he had won the prize, Satyarthi told the Central News Agency in New Delhi: “I love Taiwan and Taiwanese, because there have been hundreds of Taiwanese boys and girls coming to be our volunteers and work with us... They recognize me and love me. We are brothers and sisters, which makes me happy.”
In its announcement, the committee cited both winners’ “struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”
Satyarthi told the committee that winning the prize “will help in giving bigger visibility to the cause of children who are most neglected and most deprived.”
“Everyone must acknowledge and see that child slavery still exists in the world in its ugliest face and form, and this is crime against humanity — This is intolerable, this is unacceptable and this must go,” he added.
Asked how to combat child slavery, Satyarthi said: “This is a global problem. We have to fight together, common people, governments, judiciary authority and enterprises should work hand in hand and stand together.”
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said