SOCIETY
Actor Nicky Wu weds
Actor Nicky Wu (吳奇隆) yesterday announced his marriage to Chinese actress Liu Shishi (劉詩詩). The 44-year-old Wu posted photographs of the couple’s marriage certificate and rings with the caption “cherish happiness” on his Sina Weibo microblog. Wu and Liu, 27, met in 2011 on the set of the Chinese TV series Scarlet Heart (步步驚心), the show that made Liu famous. Wu shot to fame in the 1980s in Taiwan as a member of the Little Tigers boy band. He continued his singing career after the trio disbanded in 1995 and moved into acting. Since 2000 he has focused his career in China, starring in films and TV series.
HEALTH
Warning on monkey bites
The Centers for Disease Control urged visitors to Yushan National Park to be careful if encountering Formosan macaques after almost half the monkeys in the park’s Tataka area have tested positive for the herpes B virus. The agency said National Pingtung University of Science and Technology researchers recently tested Formosan macaques in the park and found 47 percent carried the virus, which can infect animals as well as humans. “If bitten by an infected Formosan macaque, people could be infected with the human herpes B virus,” CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Although there are only 40 cases of humans being infected with the herpes B virus, the mortality rate is more than 70 percent for those who do not receive proper treatment, he said. Survivors are often left with serious after-effects, he said. If bitten by a monkey, the victim should sanitize the wound immediately with soap or iodine and wash it with clean water for 15 to 20 minutes before seeking medical treatment, he said. Victims should also be vaccinated against rabies.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow