SOCIETY
Group of 30 rescued
About 30 people who were trapped in an upstream area of the Wanli River (萬里溪) in Hualien County’s Wangrong Township (萬榮) were brought to safety yesterday after a seven-hour joint relief operation involving Red Cross rescuers and firefighters. The 30 people, including four aged only four or five, visited a river-side hot spring a day earlier. They found themselves unable to cross the river to safety and became trapped on the riverbank after heavy rain caused the river to rise rapidly. After being told of their plight yesterday morning, firefighters from nearby townships were dispatched to the area. As of 1pm, seasonal winds and weather fronts had brought more than 100mm of rainfall in 24 hours to many townships in the county, including Wanrong. The operation involved the use of ropes, rubber rafts and SUVs that were used to pull the trapped tourists to safety.
SOCIETY
Student singers win contest
Donya Francis and Rolhensha Henry of St Kitts and Nevis in Taipei yesterday won a contest for foreigners singing campus folk songs, in which more than two dozen finalists expressed their feelings and spoke about techniques in Chinese. Angel Kurniawi Chandra of Indonesia was second, while Burocher Suart Venly of Haiti took third in the contest, organized by Radio Taiwan International (RTI). All the prize winners, two men and two women, are students, either already matriculated or in language programs at universities. RTI said it held the singing contest because this year is the 40th anniversary of the advent of campus folk songs. Previously, RTI held Mandarin-language speech contests for more than a decade. Twenty-five of the 30 finalists were involved in the competition. A significant portion of the finalists come from Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Other finalists come from Australia, Belize, the Czech Republic, France, Haiti, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, the UK and the US.
CRIME
Foreign workers arrested
Ten alleged runaway foreign workers were apprehended on Saturday living in budget housing being constructed by the government alongside the not-opened A7 MRT station in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), where they had been staying for a month, police said. Acting on tipoffs, a Taoyuan police task force and labor officials took into custody nine Vietnamese workers and one Indonesian, who had been living in one of the uncompleted buildings, police said. Police said that the workers had occupied an entire floor, where they slept on the floor and erected tents to keep warm, with instant noodles, dishes, chopsticks, electric fans and cupboards scattered around. Most of them were illegally hired by a subcontractor as cleaners, police said, adding that they will be deported in line with the Employment Services Act (就業服務法) and immigration laws after an investigation into the contractors and brokers is complete.
SOCIETY
Vampire film wins award
A short film about an Italian vampire and a Taiwanese taxi driver won the NT$50,000 top prize at the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival yesterday. The Thrill (顫慄) by Taiwanese director Hou Chi-jan (侯季然) grabbed the “Thong Award” at the festival, according to the Taiwan International Media and Educational Association, which organized the event for the second year.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry