SPORTS
ISU apologizes over flag
The International Skating Union (ISU) on Thursday apologized for displaying the flag of Taiwan rather than the “Chinese Taipei” emblem at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston. The Taiwanese flag was displayed on a video screen behind skater Li Yu-hsiang (李宇翔) when he was introduced ahead of his short program earlier in the day. The TD Garden public address announcer read the apology before the pairs event. “The ISU would like to sincerely apologize for the display of the incorrect flag for Chinese Taipei during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships event today,” it said. “We fully understand the sensitivity of this mistake and deeply regret any offense or confusion this may have caused,” it said. Li finished 30th in the short program.
Photo: AFP
SOCIETY
Actor cancels visit
South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun, known for his role in the My Love From the Star TV series, has canceled his visit to Kaohsiung amid controversy surrounding the death of his former girlfriend, South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron. President Chain Store Corp, the organizer of the Sakura Festival, on Tuesday said that Kim Soo-hyun would not be attending “due to a change in his schedule.” Tomorrow’s event would proceed as planned, except for his scheduled appearance, it said, adding those who purchased tickets for that day can ask for a full refund from 10am on Monday until 11:59pm on April 15. Kim Sae-ron took her own life on Feb. 16, Kim Soo-hyun’s birthday. South Korean media reported that Kim Sae-ron’s parents claimed Kim Soo-hyun, who is about 12 years older than their daughter, had been in a six-year relationship with her, beginning when she was 15. Kim Sae-ron later signed with Gold Medalist, an agency that also represents Kim Soo-hyun, the reports said. Her parents alleged that the agency mishandled their daughter’s affairs, the reports said. On March 14, Gold Medalist said that the two had been in a relationship, but added that they only began dating when Kim Sae-ron was an adult.
CRIME
Man indicted after fall
A man in his 70s, surnamed Lin (林), has been charged with murder after his wife fell to her death from a 14th-floor living room window on Dec. 9 last year, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said on Thursday. Lin is suspected of pushing his wife out of a window of their apartment, prosecutors said, adding that his wife, who was in her 60s and had been bedridden due to hydrocephalus — a buildup of fluid in the brain — fell to her death. Lin turned himself in later that day and the New Taipei City District Court granted a motion by prosecutors to detain him. The New Taipei City Social Welfare Department said there was no record of domestic abuse. Prosecutors on Tuesday said that Lin had intended to kill his wife.
SOCIETY
Daycare center fined
A Hsinchu City daycare center would be fined NT$240,000 and its public subsidies ended following the death of a baby this week, the city government said on Thursday. The four-month-old girl asphyxiated on March 11 while sleeping at a government-subsidized daycare center and was pronounced dead on Monday after being sent to a hospital, Hsinchu City Councilor Liu Yen-ling (劉彥伶) said. The Hsinchu Department of Social Affairs had conducted an inspection of the daycare center and held a special inquiry on Tuesday to assess the incident.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
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