SOCIETY
Man dies in scaffold collapse
A man was yesterday killed and six were injured in a scaffolding collapse on an oil terminal under construction at the Port of Kaohsiung. Another worker was still trapped as of press time last night. Their condition was described as lightly injured, but conscious. The Kaohsiung Fire Department said that it was notified at about 5:11pm of an incident at the port’s partially built oil terminal. The collpase is suspected to have been caused by a hydraulic failure in a jack that held up the platform, which plunged eight workers down the 40m-tall cylindrical structure. First responders from the department and the port’s fire brigade removed eight workers from the collapsed scaffolding, including a man surnamed Chung (鍾) who showed no signs of life. Taiwan International Ports Corp, which manages the port, said that the cause of the incident is being investigated.
HEALTH
Kaohsiung opens lab
The Kaohsiung City Government on Wednesday launched a NT$100 million (US$3.62 million) medical laboratory that is the first Good Tissue Practice cellular therapy center in southern Taiwan. The center is a joint creation of the municipal government, Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital and Raypal Biomedical, a medical unit of Compal Electronics. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that technology surrounding the emerging field of cell therapy could become the next pillar of the Taiwanese economy, adding that the city government hopes the center will advance medicine, while providing better medical care and economic opportunities for Kaohsiung residents. The university said that the 132-hectare center houses two A2 biosafety cabinets and five Good Manufacturing Practice labs, each of which is equipped with six incubators, which means the facility can process 24 samples concurrently.
DIPLOMACY
Nation cuts Honduras tariffs
The government on Friday cut to zero tariffs on 25 goods imported from Honduras under a free-trade agreement, offering an incentive ahead of this month’s inauguration of a new president who had threatened to break off diplomatic ties. Honduras is one of only 14 countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Prior to winning the presidential election in November last year, Xiomara Castro of the Liberty and Refoundation Party said that if victorious, she might open diplomatic ties with China, but her team has since backtracked. The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that the import tariff cut on agricultural goods ranging from avocados to yogurt and pork bellies, originally agreed on in 2019, came into effect after completing legal procedures. The ministry said that since 2007, bilateral trade had grown from US$65.95 million to US$148 million last year, with Honduras being the largest source of frozen prawns imported into Taiwan.
CRIME
Judge rules in dog attack
The Shihlin District Court on Friday sentenced a woman surnamed Wang (王) to 55 days in jail after her German shepherd, Mary, bit former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭). Chang was bitten when attempting to separate his dog and Mary in a park on Taipei’s Yangmingshan (陽明山) on Feb. 13 last year, the ruling said. Wang’s two German shepherds were not muzzled and she was not near Mary when it chased Chang’s dog. Wang denied that Mary had bitten Chang. Wang’s jail sentence can be commuted to a NT$55,000 fine, and can be appealed.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
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