SOCIETY
Events commemorate WWII
A series of events yesterday were held to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the suffering of thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) in Taiwan during that bloody conflict. The Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, dedicated to researching the history of former POW camps in Taiwan during WWII and the stories of the surviving inmates, hosted the 13th Far East Prisoner of War Day event in the SPOT-Taipei Film House. More than 60 people attended the event. The half-day program included a presentation on Allied Forces’ air raids in Taiwan between 1943 and 1945, given by Taiwanese military aviation historian Chang Wei-bin (張維斌). Society director Michael Hurst gave a presentation on stories of POWs in Taiwan. Hurst, a Canadian who has dedicated more than two decades to studying the history of POW camps in Taiwan, said a remembrance week for POWs is to take place in November, which would feature a wreath-laying ceremony at the site of a former POW camp in New Taipei City.
CULTURE
Cartoonist recognized
Renowned cartoonist Loic Hsiao (蕭言中), who has released more than 30 comic books, is to receive the special contribution award at the 11th Golden Comic Awards, the Ministry of Culture said on Friday. Hsiao, 55, achieved success as a cartoonist in 1985, selling more than 500,000 copies of his debut Short Circuit in Childhood, the Taiwan Comic Digital Museum said. He has also written, acted in and directed more than 20 theater productions, and last year held a world tour to exhibit his unique portrayals of celebrities and people painted with a Chinese calligraphy brush, the museum said. The ministry also announced the list of 24 works nominated for this year’s Golden Comic Awards. The winners are to be announced at a ceremony on Sept. 28, the ministry said.
RESTAURANTS
McDonald’s trims menu
McDonald’s on Friday said that it would stop serving seven items on its menu at restaurants in Taiwan, starting on Aug. 26, due to lackluster sales. The items to be discontinued are the Angus beef burger, the thousand island shrimp burger, the 1+1=$50 menu’s spicy chicken burger meal, Shake Shake Chicken Bites, McCafe’s passion fruit-lemon smoothie and hot milk tea, and Happy Meal chicken bites. The US franchise also announced that from Aug. 26, its Taiwan-based restaurants are to introduce several new items, including a smoked chicken sandwich and a honey lemon smoothie.
CRIME
Woman charged
A woman earlier this week was indicted for allegedly occupying a person’s home and discarding their furniture without the owner’s permission after squatting in the property in Taoyuan for nearly a year. The 58-year-old woman, surnamed Chang (張), redecorated the home and moved in before being discovered almost by accident, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said. The property, which was bought by the owner, surnamed Lee (李), in 1984, had been unoccupied, they said. Chang, who lived nearby, noticed that the house had been left empty for a long time and allegedly entered the home without permission in June last year. It was not until April that Lee realized something was wrong when a neighbor complimented her on how well the house had been decorated, prosecutors said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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