SOCIETY
Ex-defense minister dies
Former minister of national defense and army commander Chiang Chung-ling (蔣仲苓) died of heart failure at the age of 93 on Wednesday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. Chiang died at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, having spent almost seven weeks in a ward for the terminally ill, the ministry said on Facebook. Chiang, who retired as a three-star general, had been admitted to the hospital on Jan. 30 with heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and infections, the ministry said. A ministry spokesman paid tribute to Chiang’s contributions to the nationalization of the armed forces and overhauling military affairs. Chiang, who was born in Zhejiang Province, China, served as defense minister from December 1994 to January 1999, as the nation was undergoing democratization under then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
CHARITY
Book sale set for TAS
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club is to hold its annual book sale tomorrow from 10am to 5pm in the school’s forecourt and lobby. The club has collected thousands of books, as well as magazines, comic books and games. The books include best-sellers, classics, biographies, children’s and young adult titles, English-teaching books and cookbooks. Most of the money raised from the event is to provide funding for orphans and other children in Taiwan, but 20 percent of the proceeds will be given to Hope through Health, a US-based charity that provides financial and technical healthcare assistance to poor communities in Togo and other countries. Admission to the book fair is free. The school is at 800 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6, Tianmu (天母).
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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