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.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
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