EARTHQUAKES
Rescue team back from NZ
An urban search and rescue team returned yesterday after wrapping up a mission in New Zealand in the aftermath of a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that devastated the city of Christchurch on Tuesday. The 22-member team, which was assembled by the National Fire Agency, said they had followed Wellington’s instructions and searched 350 buildings in 21 districts, but did not find anyone trapped in the rubble or locate any dead bodies. The team members said their experience in New Zealand could be of help in undertaking future earthquake relief operations at home. A female Taiwanese student was among a number of foreign nationals who were reportedly trapped under the collapsed Canterbury TV building. So far, she has not been located.
HEALTH
Presbyopia a concern: poll
Middle-aged people are more worried about developing early presbyopia, or failing eyesight, than growing gray hair or developing wrinkles, a recent survey showed. Thirty percent of respondents — outpatients aged 35 to 54 who visited a local hospital for consultation on their deteriorating vision — said they experienced anxiety, depression, headaches and insomnia when their eyesight began to fail. Many expressed concern that wearing glasses would affect their appearance and make them look older, said Tom Yang (楊聰財), a psychiatrist at Cardinal Tien Hospital, which released the survey of 200 respondents. Some simply refused to wear glasses and 50 percent of the respondents said they also gave up reading, Yang said. Many ophthalmology outpatients also consulted psychiatrists as they were oversensitive about their health and very worried about showing the symptoms of premature aging, Yang said.
CULTURE
Bands warm up for Megaport
Two warm-up concerts for Kaohsiung’s biggest music festival, featuring dozens of underground bands, rocked fans both in the north and south of the country yesterday. The prelude shows to the Megaport Music Festival took place at Taipei’s Wall Live House and at the Wall Pier 2 in Kaohsiung. A total of 42 independent bands or artists from home and abroad, including British band 65daysofstatic and MUCC from Japan, will perform at the two-day festival that begins today. Wu Bai (伍佰) and China Blue are scheduled to perform in the final session tomorrow to close the event.
HEALTH
Donations pour in
A flood of donations has poured into various funds for people who cannot pay their National Health Insurance premiums, in the wake of last month’s charity auction by former Department of Health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), said Lai Li-wen (賴立文), a senior specialist at the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI). From Feb. 13 to Feb. 19 — the week after Yaung’s briefcase was auctioned for NT$5 million (US$168,900) — the funds received 71 donations totaling NT$886,000, Lai said. The amount was seven times the weekly average of NT$110,000 recorded in January, Lai said. Before leaving office last month, Yaung put his five-year-old briefcase up for a charity auction on the Taiwan Yahoo Web site, where it was snapped up by Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘). Yaung donated all the proceeds from the sale, plus an additional NT$500,000 out of his own pocket, to the funds set up by the BNHI to help the disadvantaged pay their health insurance premiums.
SPORTS
Kevin Lin to run Silk Road
Kevin Lin (林義傑), a renowned Taiwanese ultra-marathon runner, announced that he would begin a “Running the Silk Road” adventure next month with the aim of increasing public awareness of the shortage of water resources. Lin said he and three colleagues would start the challenge in Istanbul, Turkey, late next month and finish in Xian in China’s Shaanxi Province in mid-September. “Running the Silk Road” will be a non-profit event with proceeds going to non-governmental organizations that help alleviate water shortages in communities along the old Silk Road. Lin ran through the Sahara Desert in 2007 for a similar cause. Lin will team up with Bai Bin (白斌) and Chen Jun (陳軍) from China, and Jodi Bloomer of Canada, to run the 10,000km, 150-day route that will pass through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — places that Lin said are all facing acute water shortages. It will be the first time that Chinese and Taiwanese athletes are jointly involved in such an endeavor.
ENTERTAINMENT
Sirena Huang to perform
Noted Taiwanese-American violinist Sirena Huang will give a violin recital on Tuesday at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Huang, 16, has won several top prizes in several international competitions, most recently first prize in the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in 2009. She currently studies under Stephen Clapp and Sylvia Rosenberg at the Juilliard School in New York. Huang has been selected three times since 2003 as the youngest of 10 Exceptional Young Artists worldwide at the Starling-DeLay Symposium for Violin Study at Juilliard and has performed for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Dalai Lama and former Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel.
ENTERTAINMENT
Yang launches new firm
Taiwanese entertainment guru Yang Teng-kui (楊登魁) launched a new production company yesterday to help revive the Taiwanese film industry. The company, Polyface Entertainment Media, plans to invest NT$3 billion (US$102 million) to produce films and television dramas; the largest investment in film and television entertainment in recent history. His firm is already scheduled to produce films with several directors who said that their cooperation will be long term. The company also has a branch office in Shanghai.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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