ENTERTAINMENT
X-men in Taipei
Australian actor Hugh Jackman, known for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men movies, arrived in Taiwan yesterday to promote Logan, which is expected to be the final time he plays the character on the big screen. Patrick Stewart, who plays Professor X in the film, is accompanying Jackman on the movie’s promotional tour, 20th Century Fox said. To celebrate Jackman’s beloved character that made its debut in 2000, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan and the film studio hosted a photographic exhibition of the characters and story lines featured in the Wolverine series of films. The exhibition runs until March 17 in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義). The movie opens in theaters on Feb. 28.
POLICE
Vietnamese workers arrested
Tainan police on Saturday arrested 11 Vietnamese at a karaoke parlor party that was organized by a migrant worker who had left his job, Tainan police said yesterday. Acting on a tip, police raided the establishment and caught the suspects, including an alleged illicit drug supplier, a man surnamed Wu (吳). Police said they found Wu in possession of six “coffee packs” weighing 52.2g containing a mixture of Category 2 and Category 3 drugs. Drug dealers have been packaging drugs in instant coffee bags to disguise their contents, police said. Urine tests showed that seven of those arrested had used illicit drugs, police said, adding that they have been referred to the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of violating the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
ENTERTAINMENT
Local film comes in second
The Taiwanese film Way Back Home (回家的路), directed by graduate student Cheng Tang-jung (程堂榮), has won second place for Best Short Fiction at the Fourth Chennai International Short Film Festival in India. Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in Chennai director-general Charles Li Chao-cheng (李朝成) accepted the award on Saturday. Way Back Home, produced by Wu Hsiu-ching (吳秀菁) and Chiu Ding-hao (邱丁豪), was one of 140 entries from 14 countries. It tells the story of two children going home from school on their own after their mother forgets to pick them up, and they do not want to contact their remarried father to collect them. It explores romantic, family, parent-child and marital relationships in modern society, the office said. The festival, which was first held in 2014, holds competitions in the short fiction, short documentary and short animation categories.
MARATHON
Taiwanese join Tokyo race
About 1,300 Taiwanese participated in the Tokyo Marathon yesterday, the largest group of runners from any foreign country at the event that attracted about 36,000 people from around the world. The marathon started at 9am at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and ended at Tokyo Station. Sixteen members of the Chinese Taipei Road Running Association, including a 72-year-old, participated in the race. Some Taiwanese runners wore the Republic of China flag on their clothing or painted on their face, while some wrote “Taiwan” on their chests in English. Kenyan runners dominated the marathon, taking first place in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Yesterday’s race was a qualifier for Japanese men for the 2017 World Championships in Athletics to be held in London in August. Hiroto Inoue had the best time among Japanese men, finishing in eighth place overall.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
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