SPORTS
Ethiopian runners win
Ethiopia’s Gadise Mulu Demissie set a new women’s record at the New Taipei City Wan Jin Shi Marathon yesterday, with compatriot Masresha Bere Bisetegn coming out top in the men’s race. Demissie finished in 2 hours, 29 minutes and 25 seconds, breaking fellow Ethiopian Bekelech Gudeta Borecha’s 2023 course record by 12 seconds. Bisetegn’s time of 2:13:47 was 4 minutes and 16 seconds slower than the men’s record set by Kenya’s Cyrus Kipkemboi Mutai last year. Chou Ting-yin (周庭印) was the top Taiwanese in the men’s race, placing ninth with a time of 2:26:18. Joymei Lee (李佳玫) was the fastest Taiwanese in the women’s race, finishing eighth with a time of 2:57:03. The organizers said 11,000 runners from 31 countries took part in the marathon and the shorter challenge runs. The annual race features a route along the city’s northeast coast.
Photo: Chen Yi-shan, Taipei Times
TRANSPORT
Railway chair resigns
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications on Saturday confirmed that Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) chairman Du Wei (杜微) has tendered his resignation, citing plans for his personal career. Du, 65, said that he had served the railway for 40 years and was ready to spend more time with his family. Du started as an intern at Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA), when it was a government agency, and was its last director. When TRA was corporatized in January last year, Du was appointed chairman. Shortly before TRA’s corporatization, Du said that the company could shed its short-term debts by next year and turn a profit by 2028. However, TRC suffered record losses of NT$13.8 billion (US$418.8 million) last year, while its on-time performance rate was 93.5 percent, falling short of the expected 97 percent.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cinema veteran passes
Veteran cinematographer Lin Tsan-ting (林贊庭) has passed away at the age of 94, Taiwan’s Chinese Society of Cinematographers (CSC) said on Saturday. Lin died on Friday at Taipei’s Tri-Service General Hospital, where he was admitted after having a heart attack, the CSC said. Lin received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 58th Golden Horse Awards in 2021 alongside director Tsai Yang-ming (蔡揚名). The late cinematographer, best known for working on Taiwanese Hoklo films, was the first cinematographer to receive the award. He began his career in 1949 as one of the first apprentices at Agriculture Education Motion Pictures, which evolved into the Central Motion Picture Corp in 1954. Learning from techniques used in Japan, Lin helped to transition Taiwan’s film industry to color, the committee said. Over the years, Lin worked on more than 130 films and won four Golden Horse Awards for Best Cinematography.
ENTERTAINMENT
Martial arts star passes
Former martial arts actor Chang Chen-huan (張振寰) has passed away at the age of 65. Chang’s body was found on Friday by authorities responding to reports of a strong odor emanating from a home in Taipei, police said. Preliminary investigations ruled out third-party involvement in Chang’s passing, police said, adding that details of his death have yet to be established. Chang rose to prominence in the Taiwanese movie scene since his debut in 1976 in a fantasy film. Since then, the veteran actor specialized in action roles in fantasy movies and television shows, as well as period pieces in the wuxia (武俠, martial arts) genre, before roles dried up for him due to his age.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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