POLITICS
Kenneth Fan passes
Taiwanese writer and political commentator Kenneth Fan (范疇), known for his unique insights into issues related to Taiwan and China, has died at the age of 68, an online platform founded by Fan said on Wednesday. The Indo-Pacific Risk Forecast Center, also called insightFan, said in a statement that Fan died of cardiovascular disease at home early on Monday. No public memorial service is to be held, per Fan’s wishes, it said. Fan wrote several books on cross-strait issues and had a long been a columnist for several Asian media outlets. Fan upheld the idea that “communist China is not equivalent to China,” and praised Taiwan as a model for “striving in between the great powers and at the same time shaping democracy and freedom,” the statement said. The political commentator had always promoted this “Taiwanology” in the international community.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
SOCIETY
House fire kills two
A fire in Taoyuan on Wednesday claimed two lives and left one person in a critical condition, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The fire started at 7:28pm in a house on Longshou Street in Taoyuan District (桃園), resulting in the deaths of an 85-year-old woman surnamed Kan (干) and a 57-year-old woman surnamed Chien (簡), while severely injuring an eight-year-old boy surnamed Kan (干), prosecutors said. Kan and Chien were the boy’s great-grandmother and grandmother, they added. After a preliminary investigation, prosecutors said the fire started in the great-grandmother’s bedroom and could have been deliberately set, but the exact cause of the fire is still being investigated. The great-grandmother did not have a good relationship with the grandmother and had been unstable following her husband’s recent death, prosecutors said, adding that the great-grandmother’s body was burned beyond recognition with a lighter next to her. The grandmother was later pronounced dead, while the boy was resuscitated and was in intensive care, prosecutors said.
HEALTHCARE
Hornets attack 100 hikers
Two members of a 100-member tour group from New Taipei City were unconscious and nine others injured after a hornet swarm attacked them at Taitung County’s Luanshan Forest Museum (鸞山森林博物館) on Wednesday, local authorities said. One injured woman said the attack happened after one person tried taking a shortcut. After the person swatted away a hornet, a large swarm appeared, she said. Aliman, the museum’s founder, said the tour group was apparently attacked by lesser banded hornets, resulting in multiple injuries. Eleven people were sent to area hospitals after the attack, with two unconscious when emergency services arrived, the Taitung County Fire Department said
HEALTHCARE
Non-mRNA vaccine coming
Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine against the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is likely to arrive next month, making it the second vaccine offered against more recent strains, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration received documents late last month to begin reviewing the vaccine for emergency use authorization, CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said. If it passes review, the doses could begin arriving some time next month, Tseng said. Novavax is a subunit protein vaccine, which might be a good option for people who experienced adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines like Moderna, Tseng said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
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
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