POLITICS
Taipei mayor to visit US
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) plans to visit New York, Boston and Philadelphia on an official 11-day trip to the US, which starts on Wednesday. The visit would focus on municipal exchanges, a source in the Taipei City Government said. Chiang is to stay in New York for three days, during which he plans to visit Times Square to learn about pedestrian-friendly policies and Citi Field baseball stadium to gather information that could help improve Taipei Dome operations. He is to travel to Boston on Sunday, and meet local city officials at the Massachusetts State House on Monday during the day and deliver a speech titled “Global Taipei: Bridging Tradition and Innovation” at the John F. Kennedy Jr Forum at Harvard University in the evening. Chiang is to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the following day, before taking a train to Philadelphia for additional municipal-related activities. He is scheduled to fly back to Taiwan on Saturday next week.
SOCIETY
Crane falls in Kaohsiung
One Vietnamese worker was killed and one Taiwanese worker was badly injured at a construction site in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山) yesterday morning after a tower crane collapsed, the city’s fire bureau said. First responders found the Vietnamese man’s body under the collapsed crane, with no vital signs, and an unconscious Taiwanese man with multiple bone fractures, the bureau said, adding that it received a report about the incident at about 9:40am. The Taiwanese man, who was the operator of the tower crane, was injured after it fell to the ground and has been hospitalized, Kaohsiung City Labor Affairs Bureau chief secretary Pi Chung-mou (皮忠謀) said. All work at the construction site has been ordered to stop for an investigation into the deadly incident, Pi said. The Labor Affairs Bureau would work with Vietnam’s representative office in Taiwan and help the family of the Vietnamese man make necessary arrangements, including claiming compensation for the work-related death, Pi added.
SPORTS
RCBIC to begin next week
The Kaohsiung Respect Culture Breaking International Championships (RCBIC) are to take place at the Kaohsiung Music Center on Saturday and Sunday next week, featuring Canadian breakdancer B-Boy Phil Wizard, who won the gold medal for men’s breaking in the Paris Olympics last month, the event organizer said. The competition has a total prize of NT$1.5 million (US$46,963) and would have team battles, individual men’s and women’s categories, a category for individuals younger than 15 years old and a new all-style individual category for the first time, the Kaohsiung Sports Development Bureau said. The event would also feature judges and top breakers from the Paris Games, the bureau added. Renowned South Korean breakdancer B-Boy Hong 10 and Menno from the Netherlands, who are three-time Red Bull BC One world champions, are also to participate in the event. Japanese breakdancer B-Girl Ayumi, a competitor in the women’s breaking competition at the Paris Olympics, would serve as a judge. Known for her smooth moves and impressive musicality, Ayumi remains a top-ranked breaker at the age of 40. Another judge is South Korean breakdancer Virus, who is known for integrating crutches into his breaking, the bureau said in the statement.
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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
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Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
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