AIRLINES
Starlux unveils new route
Starlux Airlines on Dec. 2 is to launch a new route between Taichung and Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, it said in a statement yesterday. Starlux is to operate four round-trip flights on the new route every week, with tickets available now for purchase, it said. The airline would use Airbus A321neos with 188 seats, eight of which are business class and the rest economy class, it said. With flights between Taichung and Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island to begin on Oct. 27, the Okinawa route would be the fourth scheduled overseas destination from Taichung provided by Starlux, with the other two to Macau and Da Nang in Vietnam, it said. The airline also operates charter flights between Taichung and Takamatsu in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture.
DIPLOMACY
AIT names new official
A former aide to former US secretary of state John Kerry has assumed the post of cultural affairs officer at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taiwan announced on Monday. Anne Foss, former special assistant to the under-secretary for public diplomacy at the US Department of State, as well as a special assistant to Kerry when he was secretary, began her new role in Taipei on Monday last week, the AIT said.
DIPLOMACY
Swedish delegation visits
A parliamentary group from Sweden is visiting Taiwan to better understand the country’s democratization and the situation across the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The cross-party delegation from the Swedish-Taiwanese Parliamentarian Association is led by Lotta Johnsson Fornarve of the Left Party. It also includes John Weinerhall of the Moderate Party, a member on the committee on defense, and Goran Hargestam of the Sweden Democrats, a member of the committee on foreign affairs. The association has long been a firm supporter of Taiwan in the Swedish parliament and strongly backs Taiwan’s meaningful participation in world bodies such as the WHO, the ministry said, adding that it hopes the visit would help boost two-way parliamentary interactions and enhance the delegation members’ understanding of Taiwan’s democratic development and cross-strait situation.
SOCIETY
Man dies after leak
A 19-year-old man died on Monday night after having been in a coma following a carbon dioxide leak on Tuesday last week at an onshore construction site for an offshore wind farm in Changhua County. The man, surnamed Chien (簡), was one of three people who went into cardiac arrest at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park site during the incident. Chien had no heartbeat when he was found and was rushed to Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital. He was put in an intensive care unit with a coma scale of three, the lowest possible score, indicating no eye opening, verbal response or motor response. The site’s main contractor, Teco Electric & Machinery Co, in a statement yesterday offered condolences to Chien’s family and pledged to provide assistance to the family and the other workers who were injured. The two others who were found without vital signs were a 58-year-old man surnamed Liu (劉) and a 38-year-old man surnamed Lai (賴). Both were in intensive care with coma scales of three. The other 14 workers who were injured had all been discharged from hospital.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
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