OBITUARY
Chen Lee Shen passes at 94
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) mother, Chen Lee Shen (陳李慎), 94, passed away yesterday of multiple organ failure and sepsis. Chen Shui-bian posted on Facebook that his mother died peacefully in her sleep at Madou Sin-Lau Hospital, saying that he thanked the doctors and nurses for their care of his mother over the past nine months. No public ceremony is to be held out of respect for his mother’s wishes, he added. Chen Lee Shen shared a close relationship with the former president and his incarceration left her distraught, until his medical parole, sources close to the family said. In her final years, Chen Lee Shen was concerned over whether her son would obtain a presidential pardon, the sources added. Chen Shui-bian was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money laundering and bribery, but was released on parole on Jan. 6, 2015, due to deteriorating health.
ENTERTAINMENT
Film festival announced
The Taipei Film Festival began accepting submissions on Friday for its Taipei Film Awards and International New Talent Competition. The Taipei Culture Foundation said that the talent competition is open to debut feature films or second efforts of filmmakers from around the world, while the film awards are for locally made films directed by Taiwanese or residents of Taiwan. All entrants must comply with the rules set by the Ministry of Culture, the foundation added. The talent competition winner would receive NT$600,000 (US$21,067), while the film award winner would receive NT$1 million. A Special Jury Prize of NT$300,000 would also be awarded in the talent competition. The Taipei Film Festival, now in its 23rd year, would show a series of Taiwanese and foreign films from June 24 to July 10.
HEALTH
Infant dies following blaze
A one-year-old child who was in critical condition after being rescued from a burning building in Kaohsiung early on Friday died yesterday morning, a local hospital said. The child, surnamed Chen (陳), died at the hospital from severe injuries, the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital said, without disclosing further details about the girl’s death out of respect for the family’s privacy. She was the fourth person to die as a result of the blaze, which occurred at a four-story building owned by her family in Fongshan District (鳳山). Firefighters on the scene said that the three other victims were the child’s 33-year-old mother, who was calling for help from a third-floor window as she held her daughter. Still holding the child, the mother attempted to climb down a ladder that firefighters had raised, but she stumbled and fell. She died later that day from a severe head injury sustained in the fall. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
SOCIETY
Indonesian found drowned
A missing Indonesian man surnamed Lin (林), who reportedly fell off a boat on New Year’s Eve, was yesterday found dead on the banks of Wukugan Creek (五股坑) in New Taipei City, a police spokesperson said. The 19-year-old student allegedly lost his footing and fell into the Tamsui River (淡水河) at about 5am that day from a boat that Lin and 25 friends hired in Taipei’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area for a party. Lin was said to be intoxicated, police said. Two crew members called the police after they became aware of the situation and first responders searched the river, but to no avail, they said. Lin’s body was discovered by members of the public yesterday morning and police identified him by his clothes and a ring.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail